


stupid with love

by centrykleary



Series: cadnis :) [1]
Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Disaster Gays, F/F, Fluff, janis is soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24433933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/centrykleary/pseuds/centrykleary
Summary: Small collection of Janis/Cady one-shots! Please feel free to leave prompts in the comments :)Title taken from Mean Girls the Musical
Relationships: Cady Heron/Janis Sarkisian
Series: cadnis :) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812523
Comments: 10
Kudos: 62





	1. oblivious

**Author's Note:**

> written at 4am so sorry if its all over the place haha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janis and Cady have been denial of their feelings for one another, expressing it through physical contact. Once that physical contact brings them face-to-face (literally) they can no longer ignore the tension.

Tugging onto Janis’s denim jacket is none other than Cady Heron, a bright young girl with the world in her eyes. Ever since the two resolved their conflicts during the Spring Fling last year, Janis and Cady have become inseparable, joined at the hip, the dynamic duo. Nearly every morning Janis drives by Cady’s house to bring the two to school, typically having a venti chai waiting for Cady in the cupholder. The transfer student made it a habit to swing by the art studio of their school after her calculus class, anticipating to see the newest creation that Janis has whipped up. At the end of the day, the couple drives around the town, usually ending up at the ice cream parlor where they hold study sessions filled with laughter and secretly exchanged looks uncaught by the other’s eye. Damian is heavily invested with the two’s relationship, suspicious of the ice cream parlor studying sessions and the odd amount of time the two spend in the art studio. During lunch, he notices Cady’s typical alert gaze softening when her eyes land upon Janis. Whenever Cady rambles on about her time in Africa, Janis’s eyes are filled with excitement and a small blush on her cheeks appear. Damian knew there was something going on between the two, but Janis and Cady don’t even seem to notice.

“Janis, you would not _believe_ my parent’s reaction to that movie you recommended us.” Cady raved about, her hand still clutching onto a piece of Janis’s jacket. The taller of the two smiles at the sight of the redhead.

The two continued walking down the hallway of the school towards their meeting place with Damian. “Oh yeah? Did they like it?” Cady and Janis arrive at the bench, sitting next to each other. When Janis’s arm casually wraps around Cady when she leans back against the bench, it goes unnoticed by the two.

“I think they were kind of weirded out by the special effects, but they enjoyed it! It would’ve been more fun with you there though.” Cady answers, fiddling with her bracelet. “Your commentary is the best and you’re much better at explaining what’s going on. I had trouble trying to explain the whole ‘don’t feed after midnight’ thing.” 

Janis lets out a laugh. “Invite me next time then idiot.” Damian walks towards the bench and his eyes widen when he notices Janis’s arm around Cady. “What’s up with that look? Your eyes look like they’ll pop out at any moment.” 

He raises an eyebrow, pointing a finger gesturing towards Janis’s arm. Cady notices the direction of Damian’s finger and clears her throat, slowly shifting her position on the bench while Janis slowly retracts her arm away, the two look somewhat displeased. “God the amount of tension between you two is unbearable.” Damian groans, taking a seat on the patch of grass next to the bench. Before the two could get a word in, Damian continued on speaking. “Anyway, did you guys do the project for English? I sure didn’t.” 

“Oh fuck that’s due today isn’t it? Crap I left mine at home…” Janis groans, shoving her face into her hands. Cady’s face turns into a concerned expression when she notices Janis completely melt down from forgetting a project. It’s understandable, Cady has been in countless video calls with Janis when she worked on that project, she would feel miserable as well. 

“Look on the bright side guys, she’s doing the presentations in alphabetical order by our last names. You guys are gonna go tomorrow since tomorrow is a short day.” Cady says, trying to cheer up her friends. Well, mainly Janis since Damian appears to be unbothered by the fact that his project isn’t close to finished, he somehow manages to whip up an awesome project anyway. She places a hand on Janis’s back. “You guys will be fine.” Damian takes note of Cady’s hand. 

Janis takes a sigh of relief, remembering how her last name is at the end of the alphabet. The teacher will most likely stop around the letter H, Damian will have some sort of excuse to leave for the nurse anyway and Cady didn’t have to worry. She always completed her projects on time. She most likely had a deck of flashcards sitting in her backpack, already full of information she would be delivering to her class. According to the English teacher and Janis, Cady always delivered the most amazing presentations, the audience can never bat their eyes away from her exciting energy for one second. 

After a couple of moments, the bell for homeroom starts ringing and people begin dispersing away into the halls of the school. Damian, Janis, and Cady all walk towards their homeroom with Ms. Norbury, the trio discussing their weekends and upcoming plans for future hangouts. During the conversation, Damian notices Janis and Cady having their arms interlocked with one another, yet another clear sign of _something_ going on between the two friends. As usual, both of them are just simply stupid with love.

-

[ hoover damien added reginald, karen with a d, and gretch to the chat ]

[ hoover damien ] is it me or Janis and Caddy have total *lesbian* vibes going on

[ reginald ] I’m not even going to question my name. But yes, they do. 

[ reginald ] They’re always looking at each other and smiling in AP Gov. They sit on opposite ends of the room.

[ karen with a d ] omg me 2! i saw them split an orandge and feed it to eech other

[ reginald ] Gross. Somehow cute.

[ gretch ] some of my friends catch them in the ice cream parlor all the time. theyre always sharing a milkshake or whatever

[ hoover damien ] DKJSFJKDSFKLD guyssssssssssss WHY DONT THEY JUST MARRY ALREADYYYYYFDFJ

[ reginald ] You have so much energy in the morning, it’s funny. Yeah I agree, compared to Cady and Aaron, these two have much more chemistry with each other.

[ karen with a d ] y did they break up 

[ gretch ] long distance doesnt work

[ reginald ] We’ll discuss this later. “Phone time” for Mr. Miller is up.

-

Cady barely managed to get through AP Calculus BC, for the most part she attempted to avoid falling asleep. After watching that movie, Cady couldn’t sleep well and decided to have a long conversation with Janis over the phone. Not about the movie, she would rather save that for future conversations, but regarding any topic in general. With Janis, Cady found talking quite easy since the two always managed to jump from subject to subject with no hesitation. There were rarely any pauses between the two within conversations, words would keep flowing from their mouths non-stop. Both text conversations, phone calls, and real life conversations would last for hours. When Cady would go on her rambles about her time in Africa, Janis would always follow up with questions, eager to discover more about Cady’s life. When Janis would discuss painting, the redhead would do the same; the two got along perfectly.

Making her way to the art studio, she notices Damian, Regina, Gretchen, and Karen by a row of lockers nearby. It appears that they were in deep discussion about something. Not wanting to interrupt their conversation, Cady resumes with her regular routine and opens the door to the art studio, only to find an empty classroom. Confused by the emptiness, she decides to peek around to look for Janis. While stepping further into the art studio, she begins to feel something creep on her shoulders.

“Boo!” Cady lets out a small yelp and turns around, finding Janis in her apron covered with paint. The shorter of the two rolls their eyes and playfully punches the other, somewhat irritated by the uncalled for surprise. Janis wraps her arms around Cady’s waist from behind, the two swinging back and forth in place. “You dealt with lions, tigers, and probably Scar from the Lion King and you still get scared?” 

Cady’s head turns to face Janis’s, scoffing at her comment. “None of them are as terrifying as you.” 

“Now that’s just plain mean. Are you sure you’re not an asshole?” Janis says. The two let out a collective laugh and then realize how close their faces are to one another. For once in their relationship, there’s a silence within the air and neither of them are willing to acknowledge it. For a couple of moments, Cady’s eyes flicker down to Janis’s lips, it knocked the wind out of each other’s lungs. Snapping out of their trance, the couple pulls away and stood apart from one another. 

“Anyway, show me what you’ve been working on!” Cady chuckles nervously, rubbing her now sweaty palms against her jeans. That time, their closeness didn’t go unnoticed.

Still phased by how she could feel the warmth of Cady’s breath against her own lips and how Cady’s eyes certainly weren’t looking at hers, Janis took a bit to process her friend’s comment. After collecting herself for a brief moment, she clears her throat and gestures Cady towards the canvas that she’s been working on. Janis couldn’t help, but smile when she noticed her friend’s face light up with excitement - it is a portrait of Cady after all. “Hippie dude wanted us to paint a person since we’ve been practicing on realism. Do you like it?”

“Dude I love it! You really captured my essence.” Cady says, her eyes still attached to the portrait of herself. “Since I’m so flawless~” Janis rolls her eyes while her friend pretends to toss her hair. “You should be getting that A.” 

Janis picks up her paint palette and walks over to the sink, washing out the leftover paint. She was extremely delighted to hear that Cady enjoys the painting. As she washed out her palette, Cady patiently waited by the door, standing there awkwardly. Again, there was that silence, that annoying silence that never happened with them. After a couple of moments, Janis finally finished cleaning up her station and followed Cady towards the cafeteria. “We’re still on for ice cream later right? I really need help to study for my math test.” Janis says, finally breaking the small tension between the two. 

“Yeah dude of course! I pick the milkshake this time, last time you picked banana. Who the hell picks banana?” Cady exclaims, still astonished by Janis’s taste of sweets. Pretending to feel butthurt, Janis places a hand over her chest, dramatically gasping for the additional effect.

“I’ll have you know banana is the best and you can’t change my mind.” 

Their arms graze against each other and for the first time, it leaves a tinge of red across their faces. The couple clears their throats and their little moment is interrupted by Damian who swings his arms around the two shorter girls. “Ahhh my little gaybies.”

“Your what?” Cady and Janis both ask, their faces extremely confused by Damian’s comment. 

“Oh nothing. Anyway, lunch is calling me and I think it’s pizza day so come on bitches lets get a move on.”

\------

[ reginald changed the name to crackhead hours ]

[ reginald ] Are we ever going to add these lovebirds to the chat? So that they’ll at least be in the loop of their own relationship…

[ gretch ] dude i swear. they basically were a couple during lunch. 

[ hoover damien ] when r they not gretchen

[ karen with a d ] janis did what shane does to me to cadie 

[ reginald ] When did you date that guy?

[ hoover damien ] uh yeah karen, when was t h a t

[ karen with a d ] like last week. neway, janis wraps her arm around cadies waist a lot. 

[ gretch ] this is a conversation for another day… 

[ hoover damien ] omg guys

[ hoover damien ] janis sent me this when school ended cadybeltingtoafricabytoto.mov

[ hoover damien] sdfkdsfdskfjdsjklfkjds THEYRE OUT FOR ANOTHER ICE CREAM DATE

[ reginald ] Your energy between those two texts changed so drastically.

[ reginald ] Maybe Gretchen’s friends will be there. I’m eager to see what they do when we’re not around.

[ karen with a d ] i wish i had ice cream :(

[ gretch ] sweetie, we’ll take you out for ice cream some time.

[ karen with a d ] :DDDD

[ gretch ] my friends should be there, i think theyre stopping by to get a cake for our homeroom teacher

[ gretch ] ill ask them to snoop around like they usually do

[ hoover damien ] ughhh my lil gaybies just need to profess their love already

[ reginald ] We’re going to add them here once they get together right? I feel like that’s the proper thing to do.

[ gretch ] oh for sure. they need to witness how everyone but them knew how they loved each other

[ gretch ] my friend just texted

[ gretch ] “they look more timid than usual. they barely touched their milkshake and theyre avoiding eye contact.”

[ hoover damien ] HAVE MY CHILDREN FINALLY REALIZED?????????

[ reginald ] Let Gretchen speak, I want to know what’s happening.

[ gretch ] “theyre finally talking. Janis just told Cady something and both of them look very surprised.”

[ hoover damien ] FKDJSFJKSDJLKFDJLKFJKLDKLFKLFJDKSFJKDSFKJL GET WITH IT ALREADY

[ gretch ] “OMG WHAT”

[ gretch ] WAITHLKDSFJLKFJLKDJLKF GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS

[ reginald ] What is it?

[ gretch ] jadyjadyjady.png

[ hoover damien ] are they- ARE THEY KISSING

[ hoover damien ] IN PUBLIC TOO OH MY GOD THE GAYS WON

[ reginald added caddyy, artandspace to the chat ]

[ hoover damien ] YOU TWO HAVE A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO

[ caddyy ] huh ?

[ artandspace ] i agree with cady. What?

[ reginald ] Scroll up.

[ artandspace to caddyy ] 

[ artandspace ] study at your house from now on?

[ caddyy ] for sure. im sure ill keep you motivated to study without milkshakes somehow:)

[ artandspace ] let me guess…. kiss for every right answer?

[ caddyy ] maybe :)

[ crackhead hours ]

[ gretch ] jadytextingoneanothersecretly.png

[ artandspace ] stop ur friends from taking those stalker photos of us sdflkjsdf

[ hoover damien ] explain what happened then

[ artandspace ] no way in hell

[ caddy ] fine.

[ artandspace ] CADDY WHY

-

“Wow Caddy, didn’t know Africa by Toto was your favorite song.” Janis says, slinging her backpack over her shoulders. The couple enter the ice cream parlor, waving at the employee that they’ve acquainted with since Cady and Janis are always eating during their shift. 

Cady orders a mint chocolate milkshake, smiling at the sight of Janis’s exasperated expression; Janis absolutely loathes mint-flavored anything. “It’s probably one of the only songs I love.” 

Cady and Janis take their usual seating in the parlor, a booth against the corner. Janis retrieves the heavy Calculus textbook from her backpack, internally groaning at the cover. Even the sight of coordinate planes, fractions, and any other math-related drawings make her sick. Compared to her friend Cady, Janis struggles with mathematics frequently. From antiderivatives to particle velocity, integrals to volume around known cross-sections, Janis could never wrap her mind around the topics. Luckily, Cady is always eager to help with zero hesitation, it was almost like she would drop anything just to help Janis with a single math problem.

“What’s your test about?” The redhead asks, popping two straws into the milkshake that was delivered to their booth. Janis opens her textbook to the chapter about related rates, pushing the textbook towards Cady. The way her eyes lit up when her eyes landed upon the pages of her favorite subject in calculus made Janis’s stomach flutter. There was a certain change of mood with their relationship and Janis is finally quick to notice. “What do you not get exactly?”

Here’s the thing, Janis actually understood the concept of related rates. She was capable of identifying the constants, applying the proper equations to use, and plugging in numbers in the proper places. After that moment in the art studio where they nearly kissed, Janis needed some sort of excuse to see Cady. An excuse was probably never needed, but Janis felt it was needed. “Uh, maybe like the-” She clears her throat, trying to create a lie about what she was confused about. “This.”

Cady raises her eyebrows when she notices that Janis didn’t point at anything specific within her textbook. She takes a sip from the milkshake for her sudden dry mouth. “That’s just a picture of a ladder. Do you have a problem with the ladder ones?” 

Realizing her mistake, Janis tries to recover quickly without Cady suspecting anything. “Yeah, yeah!” Janis reaches for the milkshake and makes contact with Cady’s hand who was also reaching for the drink as well. The taller of the two pushed the drink so abruptly it nearly spilled all over the math textbook. “Ladders you know, pretty stupid problems.” Janis chuckles, crossing her arms across her chest.

She recognizes how timid Janis is, how quick she is to react whenever the two make any type of contact. Cady’s smart, she knows that there’s something going on with Janis and there’s certainly something bothering her best friend. Instead of trying to explain the problem that Janis probably knows how to do, she shuts the textbook and pushes it aside. “What’s wrong? You’re acting so jumpy ever since lunch.”

Janis clenches her hands underneath the table, she wasn’t prepared to answer _this_ type of question. She couldn’t hide anything from Cady, the two always told each other their secrets. Cady was the only person that was aware of Janis’s piano skills, she would only ever play for her. Janis knew of Cady’s intense fear of spiders, unexpected for someone who dealt with large mammals. Yet, she still tried to lie. “Nothing, I'm just, nervous.” Good one Janis. Real good one.

“Of what exactly?” She leans in closer, resting her arms on the table. When she realizes that Janis refuses to make eye contact with her, Cady eventually moves up from her side of the booth towards Janis. She takes a seat next to her and notices her hands clenched into fists. It hurt to see Janis in this state of panic. “You can tell me anything you know? I promise not to judge.”

Janis could no longer lie, it would only hurt her. Cady deserved to know the truth. Besides, she wasn’t with Aaron Samuels anymore so she knew that Cady wouldn’t be mad if she were to tell her. “Okay, you know we almost fucking kissed during lunch right?”

Cady gritted her teeth, she certainly knew that they nearly kissed. “Yes I-”

“All those times I’ve wrapped my arms around you, hugged you, interlocked my freaking arm with you, I didn’t do that just because we’re really close.” Janis couldn’t handle it anymore, she just had to tell her. “I really like you okay? More than a friend.” 

Janis froze in place, anticipating for some type of disgusted remark, an insult, a laugh, just anything. Instead of words, Cady simply reached out for her hands and held them securely. When Janis looked up, finally making eye contact with her friend she noticed that tears were forming in Cady’s eyes. “Thank god. I thought I had done something wrong.” Janis laughed nervously. “But I think you’d be happy to know that I like you too. More than a friend.” Cady says, copying Janis’s last words of her own sentence.

A sense of adrenaline pulsated throughout Janis’s body, her crush had just stated that she likes her back. It was thrilling, Janis couldn’t help but smile dorkily. “So, uh, now what?” 

She notices Cady’s hands slowly drift towards her face, her hands cupping both sides of her face. “Well, I think this.” 

She slowly leans in and presses a gentle kiss against Janis’s lips who can taste the mint chocolate shake from the kiss. Her body had lost all tension, it had nearly slumped into Cady. They continue kissing in the booth as Janis slowly drifts her hands towards Cady’s waist, tugging her closer for a more comfortable position. The kiss starts off slowly, both of them unsure of how to kiss one another properly. In a couple of seconds, they eventually figure out a rhythm. Catching some air, the two pulled away with swollen lips and eyes that were full of, as Cady would put it, calculust. 

“Woah.” Janis utters, their hands eventually interlacing with each other’s. Although the two would frequently hold hands, this time felt much more different than past times. 

“So, does this mean we’re girlfriends?” Cady asks, her eyes occasionally flicking down to Janis’s lips. This time, the taller of the two is the one to initiate the kiss, pulling away earlier. 

“Hope that answers your question.”

-

[ hoover damien ] omgomgomgomg THATS SO FCKING CUTEEEEEEEEE

[ caddyy ] i know right!!! Janis was so timid ahhhh

[ caddy ] were holding hands in the car !!!

[ artandspace ] caddy stfuuuuuuu pleaseeeeeeefskdfkjdskjf

[ reginald ] Wow you typed that fast considering you only have one hand to type with.

[ karen with a d ] lesbians r skiled with fingers

[ artandspace ] ……

[ caddy ] okay im driving now bye bye

[ hoover damien ] FKDSKLFJDLKFJKDSFKLDSKLJF KAREN THAT HAS BEEN THE BEST THING TO COME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH

[ gretch ] #jady 

[ reginald ] ^^^^

\--

“We’re never going to hear the end of this are we?” Cady asks, pulling into the driveway of her house. The moment she unbuckles her seatbelt she feels Janis press a kiss against her cheek, causing Cady to blush different shades of red and pink.

“I don’t think so. I’m not complaining though… as long as I’m with you.”

Cady and Janis were no longer stupid with love, they were at best mediocre at it.


	2. we'll get through this together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A girl dating a girl in high school is bound to come across obstacles, unfortunately Cady herself has trouble facing those obstacles.

Cady and Janis aren’t the affectionate type of couple. Well, behind closed doors they are, in school there was a lack of contact. Before the two started dating, they frequently interlocked arms, hugged for a long time, and even held hands in the hallway. Now with everyone being aware that the two are officially a couple, Cady and Janis became more shy about expressing their affection for one another. After a couple of jeers and derogatory insults by Jason after they shared a quick kiss during passing period, the two are extremely hesitant. The two even avoid holding hands because they’re afraid that something _worse_ than insults will happen. It’s difficult for Cady to restrain herself from instinctively holding hands with Janis when she first sees her. When Janis gets complimented by Cady or when her girlfriend does something _incredibly_ adorable like her dorky smile when she first sees her in the morning, it hurts to fight back the urge to kiss her girlfriend. At least when Janis goes over to Cady’s house after school, they make up for lost time.

“Janis!” Cady yells out in the hallway, a small smile starts to creep onto her girlfriend’s face. She closes her locker and turns around, her mouth slightly opening when she notices what Cady is wearing. 

A couple of days ago, the two went on a date. It was Cady’s idea for the couple to stargazing and she’s never seen Janis more enamored with anything before. It made the redhead’s stomach flutter when she was nuzzled into Janis’s side, her arm wrapped around her body as she explained different constellations that were visible. From the Big Dipper to Andromeda, Janis had a mass amount of knowledge about the stars in the skies and the little pictures that were formed. It was freezing cold and halfway through the date, Janis noticed how Cady was freezing through her thin flannel. Luckily, Janis gave her sweatshirt to Cady, the fact that it basically draped over her small body made Janis feel more delighted. It was just a simple beige sweatshirt with a little rainbow embroidered in the corner. 

Janis makes her way towards Cady, following her to the meeting place with friends. “I see you’re wearing my sweatshirt.” She points out, leaning against the row of lockers as Cady goes through her own. Although her voice may have sounded controlled, inside Janis was squealing over how _adorable_ Cady looks, a pink blush across her face to prove it. She turns to Janis and then looks back at the sweatshirt.

“It’s really comfortable… I hope you don’t mind.” Cady says, pulling out a textbook for her first period AP Physics class, that girl really did love math. By the time she closes her locker, Damian appears from behind and dramatically throws himself onto the lockers, letting out a loud groan.

“Peter didn’t call me back last night.” He exclaims, pulling out his phone to show the text messages that were left on read. Peter is a guy Damian recently met at his job, a clothing store. The two hit it off really quick and were best of friends, sharing similar interests with musical theater and their love for George Michael. They were supposed to go on a date but Peter had gotten cold feet.

As the trio walks towards their usual hangout area, Janis and Cady absolutely _shred_ Peter to pieces. “I am going to find Peter and beat the crap out of him. What a dick!” Janis exclaims, frustrated at fact that Damian’s crush didn’t even notify him beforehand about his absence. 

“I’ll spy on him, get the inside details about why he didn’t go. I’ll apply for a job there.” Cady says. Damian and Janis are not sure if their partner in crime was joking or not since she did actually end up spying on The Plastics junior year though… a fault on Janis’s part.

“Ugh you guys are the best.” Damian says, swinging his arms around his two best friends and squeezing them in the biggest hug. It upset Cady and Janis to see Damian upset, he hasn’t gone on a date in such a long time. To be waiting at the mall for probably over an hour without any call or text must’ve been embarrassing. According to Damian, he just watched the movie on his own, sneaking in snacks as usual.

When the trio take their place on the bench, Damian lets out a loud sigh and takes out his phone, hoping for something. “What’s going on?” Regina George asks, approaching her friends. Ever since they all made up and agreed to forget the past, she’s become very good friends with the trio along with Gretchen and Karen. “He looks like a puppy died or something.” 

Forgetting that there are other people around, Janis swings her arm around Cady, blushing like a mad man almost instantly at the sudden contact. “Peter didn’t show up for their date.” Janis explains, Regina looks like her soul left her body when she releases a large gasp. “I know right? Dick move of him…”

Before Regina could talk, a low voice emerged from the side. “Wow, the dyke can say the word dick even if she doesn’t like it.” Scumbag Jason scoffs, he’s somehow always around when Cady and Janis are displaying the smallest sign of affection. “Kiss for me, I need some sort of relief.” He sighs with crossed arms in front of his chest.

Janis retracts her arm from Cady, her hand clenching the bottom of her sweater. All the memories from middle school come crashing down in Janis’s mind while Cady sits there, trying to avoid eye contact with the asshole. “Jason, go take your horny ass somewhere else. Clearly if your small feet flutter to the word ‘dick,’ you really need some.” Regina snaps back, arms crossing in front of her chest.

Jason scoffs and walks away, flipping the friend group off. Damian’s mouth drops wide open in reaction to Regina’s comment, high-fiving her for that _fetch_ comeback. “God you’re incredibly witty. How do you do it?”

She smiles and tosses her hair. “Natural talent. By the way, you should just text Peter. I’m sure he has some reason. I’m sorry about what happened though.” Regina adds, placing her backpack down on the grass and sitting on it. Damian waves his hand in dismissal, he shouldn’t really send a sixth text if Peter hasn’t responded to the first five ones. Regina smiles at Damian’s comment and turns to Cady and Janis who are looking more glum than usual. “Hey, ignore what Jason said. He’s just a little scumbag.” Her body language drops when she notices Cady tearing up. “Oh Caddy, I’m sorry you two have to deal with this bullshit.”

“Yeah me too, god it’s so _fucking_ stupid. Like you don’t see anyone telling the sexually active band geeks off for literally sucking each other off in the cafeteria.” Janis hissed, crossing her arms across her lap. Cady copied Janis’s position and they subtly held hands, no one could really see them doing so. What’s upsetting is that Cady didn’t _understand_ why people could be so cruel. She knew that people were assholes sometimes, but to constantly berate someone for something small as a public display of affection, it hurt. 

“It’s whatever, doesn’t bother me.” Cady utters, averting eye contact from the group. Whenever she’s upset, it’s usual for her to avoid confronting the problem in front of everyone. Typically, Cady keeps the problem to herself and spills out her feelings about it later on when it’s only the four of them - six with Gretchen and Karen.

The bell rings and the four of them stand up, hugging one another before dispersing to their homerooms. “You gonna be alright Caddy?” Janis asks, gently nudging her shoulder. She always dealt with the insults better than her girlfriend did, Cady wasn’t used to people being so close-minded.

“Yeah, you seem really upset. We’ll put that ass in his place. A revenge party.” Damian says, trying to provoke some sort of smile or laughter from her. Luckily, Cady did smile and seemed to approve of the idea of another revenge party. Of course they weren’t going to go through with it considering a large mess happened last time. 

“Thanks guys. I’m sorry that you have to deal with this type of crap again Janis.” She says, turning her head towards her girlfriend. Janis shrugs her shoulders and reassures her that the comments didn’t really bother her anymore, it was easier to use those comments against the homophobes and those who fetishized woman and woman relationships. 

Although Cady was comforted by her friends, she wasn’t sure if the comment would be sitting right with her for the entire day.

-

Fortunately for Janis, she never encountered Jason or one of his friends throughout the day since their schedules never matched up with one another’s. Unfortunately, Cady had to deal with a small share of Jason’s friends in her classes and their incredibly ignorant remarks they just felt the need to share. In her AP Physics class, Cady had to deal with one of Jason’s closest friends, Michael. Somehow he heard about the small encounter between his friend and the couple and wouldn’t leave the situation alone. When group work was assigned, Michael was near Cady’s seat and would harass her about earlier in the morning. 

“Tell Regina to stop protecting little dykes like you, sooner or later you’ll be the jungle freak you were before.” Cady let that one slide, she continued working on the set of problems that were assigned for her group. Only 48 more minutes of non-stop comments, it’ll be over before she knows it.

A couple of periods pass and Cady has to deal with Blake, another one of Jason’s friends. Cady was a teacher assistant for Ms. Norbury’s AP Calculus AB class and Blake didn’t sit too far from her desk. As she was grading their recent tests, providing comments and feedback on student’s work, Blake had muttered a sentence loud enough for only Cady to hear and other people sitting around him. 

“I can turn her straight, watch me.”

Cady shifted in her seat, visibly uncomfortable by that comment. Needing something to ease her nerves, the redhead lowered head down, resting it on top of her arm. She rests her chin against the desk, her nose being smothered in the sweater. The scent of Janis’s lavender perfume calmed Cady down, letting her breathing become less erratic. A couple more periods to go, she thought to herself. When she came across Blake’s test, she _may or may not_ have “accidentally” misplaced it - hopefully it’ll enjoy its time in a nearby landfill. Luckily for Cady, Ms. Norbury found out and Blake was forced to retake the test that he definitely failed.

Cady couldn’t have been more relieved when the bell for lunch rang, with zero hesitation she ran towards the art studio where Janis always was, wanting some privacy with her girlfriend. When Cady bursted into the art studio, her girlfriend was there alone of course and she went straight in for a hug, enjoying the feeling of Janis’s arms wrapping around her waist. Knowing that no one else could see into the art room or was in the art room with them, Janis plants a small kiss on Cady’s forehead and doesn’t pull away. “Holding up okay? Gretchen said you looked a bit tense during your service learning period.” 

She didn’t want to discuss it, not right now. “Can we talk about this later? I just want some food right now…” Janis nods her head and slowly releases her girlfriend from the hug, cleaning up her station before heading out. They leave the classroom and make their way to the cafeteria where Damian, Gretchen, Karen, and Regina were already waiting for them.

“My family just got a pool.” Karen says, coloring in a picture of what appears to be some sort of landscape - it was most likely for a project. “Do you guys want to come over Saturday?”

“Uh, hell yeah Karen!” Damian exclaims, pool parties is one of his favorite events to attend. He enjoys running into the water, doing a cannonball and watching everybody around him become drenched in water. 

“For sure, Gretchen and I were wondering who was hosting our weekly hangout earlier. Looks like it's your turn!” Regina says, taking a bite from her cheese fries. After the whole “Plastics” debacle, she’s lost all her interest in keeping up with the calorie and fat content of her food items, there wasn’t any point. 

“I’ll bring the snacks.” Janis adds, already stirring up a list in her head of what food items to bring; cake certainly was at the top of her list. It wasn’t a party, but Janis really _loves_ some good cake. 

“I can drive people if they need a ride.” Cady offers, her voice being less energetic and loud than usual. She usually was the one to provide people rides to places anyway, hopefully no one suspected anything. A collective cheer came from the group, road trips or even small trips to nearby places was the best way to spend time with friends. Damian would usually be hogging the aux cord, blasting songs and singing from the top of his lungs. Janis, of course, would be on the passenger side next to Cady, having a _calm_ conversation with her girlfriend while the others would have a mini party in the backseat. The thought of that cheered Cady up, her mood has slightly been lifted.

Still, those comments made by Jason’s friends earlier never left Cady’s head as her group discussed the time range of the pool party. 

-

Final period of the day and Cady had to encounter the leader of Jason’s friend group, Jason himself. It was her environmental science class and before her relationship with Janis began to spread, Jason would rarely talk to Cady. Occasionally there was the group discussions where they had ended up in the same group, but that was it. Now, ever since her relationship became public, Jason never leaves her alone. Apparently, this day in particular was when Jason decided to be an extreme asshole.

“Dating the space dyke, how out of character. Actually, quite in character considering you were an outcast for most of last year.” Cady tried hard not to grip the beaker in her hand during the lab, she didn’t want the glass to break. She continued with her assignment while Jason kept making comments about her and Janis’s relationship.

“I bet she butters your muffin real nice.” The tone of voice made Cady sick to her stomach. “How freaky are you two in the sheets?”

That period took longer to end than usual and Cady hated every moment of it.

-

[ Cady to Janis <3 ]

[ Cady ] im not in my class, i went straight to my car

[ Janis <3 ] on my way right now.

By the time Janis arrived, she found Cady not in the driver seat or even passenger seat of her own car. Looking through the windshield, she noticed her girlfriend in the backseat, her head looking down on the car floor. She rushes over quickly, opening the back door of the car and sliding into the seat. With zero hesitation, she takes Cady into her arms and her girlfriend begins sobbing loudly.

“I’m here, I’m here. I got you Cady, I got you.” Janis comforted, her voice acting as a light wave through her girlfriend’s mind crashing with constant thoughts of the horrible comments made today. Whenever Janis becomes serious, she pronounces Cady’s name properly, taking on a mother-bear-like role for her girlfriend, it makes her heart ache to see her upset.

“They just wouldn’t stop.” Cady cries, her voice breaking at the end of her sentence. “I had his stupid friends in my periods, I even had Jason himself in envisci.” She wailed, her grip tightening on Janis’s sweater. Her girlfriend presses a kiss against her forehead and her arms around Cady become more secure.

“We’ll report them, okay? I’m pretty sure they’ll believe Regina if she was the one to say it. We can get Gretchen to record them doing it and it’ll all be over. It’ll be okay Cady, I promise.” She feels Cady nod against her shoulder. The crying of the two slowly pulls away and rubs her eyes against the sleeves of Janis’s sweatshirt, it cheers her up to remember the stargazing date. “Want me to drive? We can go to my place, my folks won’t mind. They really love you.” Janis offers, taking her backpack off and throwing it behind her. 

“I’d like that.” Janis moves to the front seat while Cady remains in the back, she doesn’t want to be seen by anyone through the non-tinted windows in the front. Her girlfriend pulls out of the student parking lot and makes her way towards her home, occasionally checking on her through the rear-view mirror.

-

When they arrive, Cady is greeted by Janis’s parents who offer a glass of lemonade or some type of snack. The couple both deny the offer and make their way up towards Janis’s room where Cady pulls out her schoolwork right away, starting off with the subject that makes her most happy - mathematics. The way Cady’s pencil seemed to dance throughout her paper made Janis even more smitten with her girlfriend, it was quite the sight to see a mathlete at work. The sound of graphite scratching against paper was rather soothing for Janis, it showed that Cady still had some sort of happy mood within her to do math. She admired the way that Cady had almost a rhythm when it came to math, similar to a ballerina dancing to a waltz. 

“You don’t have to push yourself too hard right now, we can talk about what happened.” Janis says, not wanting her girlfriend to become more stressed with her homework when she already had a lot on her plate. She was playing Cady’s hair throughout her math homework, Cady was lying on her stomach doing her homework on Janis’s bed. For the redhead, it soothed her whenever Janis would play with her hair, it was a nice feeling.

“After this problem…” Cady mutters, finishing up the last problem of her homework. When she’s done, she shuts her notebook and textbook, gently placing her school materials on the floor of her girlfriend’s bedroom. Without any warning, she throws herself onto Janis, laying on top of her body while her arms snake around under while her head rests upon her chest.

“Could’ve used a little warning there Caddy.” Janis groans, Cady _literally_ almost knocked out all the air from her lungs. She brushes her hands through her girlfriend’s long hair.

“They said something about making me straight. That I’ll be the ‘jungle freak’ I was before. It was just those comments over and over again.” Cady mutters, her eyes half-opened; crying always made her tired. “I nearly broke a beaker in envisci because of Jason.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you nearly broke it from throwing it on his stupid head.” Janis jokes, her heart aching less when she hears Cady laugh. “Look, I was in the same position as you in middle school. Of course their words got to me, I had to drop out for a while for god sake. But what I learned, Caddy, is that you shouldn’t really listen to them. There’s going to be homophobic assholes like Jason out there and you just have to learn to deal with them. They’re trying to instill fear within you, so they can have more power over you. The more they see you react, the more power that’ll be used to harass you and I.” Cady mutters something but Janis only picks up certain keywords that were emphasized. “I don’t like it either, but hey. At least we have each other.” She says reassuringly, wanting Cady to know that she didn’t have to go through this alone.

Cady lifts her head and faces it towards Janis whose gaze instantly softens when making eye contact with her girlfriend. She slowly leans in, kissing Janis on the lips. The kiss wasn’t anything lustful or sexual, it was tender and soft, Janis could feel the adoration from Cady exerting through the kiss. They pulled away, feeling each other’s breaths on their lips. “I’m so glad to have you…”

Janis wraps her arms around Cady. “Me too Caddy, me too.”

“Can I stay like this for a while, it’s comfortable…” Cady asks, her voice sounding extremely sleepy. 

Janis’s hands start playing with the end of Cady’s hair. “Of course.”

She feels Cady’s weight become more heavier and realizing that her girlfriend fell asleep, she stops playing with her hair and simply wraps her arms around Cady once again. Janis herself doesn’t feel sleepy, so she remains awake, holding her girlfriend so tightly in place, enjoying the cute sight of her girlfriend sleeping peacefully. Her mouth was slightly open and with the addition of Janis’s sweater, it made the sight even more enjoyable to see. Some of Cady’s hair was draping across her face and her girlfriend couldn’t help but smile at such a sight. Janis was so whipped for Cady.

-

[ crackhead hours ] 

[ hoover damien ] GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS 

[ reginald ] Aren’t you at work? 

[ karen with a d ] arent u at your job 2?

[ reginald ] touche… 

[ karen with a d ] whats touch with an e?

[ reginald ] Nevermind, how is it going with Peter Damian?

[ hoover damien ] he explained that he had to take care of his little sister and it passed his mind to text me, were going out sunday.

[ hoover damien ] also i got off early so i went to janis’s house as usual right? LOOK

[ hoover damien ] janisissoftforcady.png

[ gretch ] omgomgomgomg SAVED SAVED SAVED SAVED

[ karen with a d ] awwwwwwwwwww

[ reginald ] Wow, Cady sure looks comfy ;) @artandspace

[ artandspace ] stop it she had a bad day >:( also smh damian almost woke her up by B A R G I N G into my room

[ hoover damien ] im already planning jason’s demise. also my bad, how was i supposed to know she knocked tf out

[ reginald ] Gretchen, you know what to do.

[ gretch ] yup. ill record him saying those weird ass stuff about you two :)

[ karen with a d ] ill act as the distrackter! :D

[ artandspace ] you guys are the best.

[ artandspace ] damian please sit at the foot of the bed, do not disturb MY PEACEFUL CADDY

[ hoover damien ] “my”

[ artandspace ] ugh shut up. now pass me her phone so i can turn her notifs off. you do the same.

[ reginald ] Keep me updated! My break is over.

[ hoover damien ] janis is so whipped for caddy… anyway lets talk about peter.


	3. cats cats cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cady and Janis both owned cats, the only difference is that one was a mighty lion and the other is a small domestic housecat.

After the incident with Regina George about the pool party, Janis’s parents allowed their daughter to adopt a pet of her choice. Their daughter was left with only one friend, Damian Hubbard, and her parents wanted Janis to have another companion.. Before visiting the adoption center, young Janis settled with adopting a cat after many nights of research. Rearrangements of rooms were made, a jar of money was gradually filled, and new additions of the household were made. A cat tower was placed in the living room along with a litter box. There were cat toys scattered across Janis’s room along with a laser pointer that sat on her desk. When the day arrived, her excitement could barely be contained when her parents’ car approached the shelter.

Entering the building designated for cats, piercing blue eyes met Janis’s through the bars of a cage, letting out one yowl after the other. A white-furred coat with black-colored paws, ears, tail, and nose, drew middle school Janis into a trance. The small kitten reached up towards the cage, standing itself on its hind legs, meowing at the junior high student. It’s little paws swiped through the gaps of the bars, trying to play with Janis; she couldn’t resist the incredibly adorable kitten standing right before her. An employee allowed the young girl to hold the kitten, Janis’s eyes began watering when she noticed the small kitten purring in her embrace, nuzzling its small head into the crook of her arm. With zero hesitation, the young eighth grader adopted the small kitten and after some paperwork, the young kitten was hers. 

Janis called the small kitten Nunu, a name she would be so happy to call out every day when she returned home from school.

-

Growing up in Kenya for most of her childhood years, Cady Heron and her family adjusted to being surrounded by animals. The Heron family considered the lions, zebras, and other wildlife to be their neighbors, just less talkative. Despite the many other lions that disliked human contact, there was one lion cub in particular that Cady took care of from the age of 10 to 16. Cady and her mother helped a female lion give birth to its cub and unfortunately, the mother passed away while giving birth; the females of the Heron family were required to take care of the young cub. There was bright excitement in the redhead’s eyes, excited to finally have an “official pet.” 

She would bottle feed the young cub every day since there was no mother to nurse from and Cady rarely spent a moment away from her young lion cub. As the lion slowly matured, people would find the Herons with a lion travelling behind them, walking next to the youngest member of the Heron family. It was quite a sight to see, a large lion cub casually next to a girl that was around 4’10. Cady called her lion cub Meria, named after the alstroemeria flower that was native to Kenya. Young Cady would be toppled over by Meria whenever they would play, laughing away while her parents would watch from a close distance. Meria the lion and Cady were inseparable and would always get along - with the exception of a few bites here and there. Meria was Cady’s only best friend in Kenya, their bond was truly unbreakable. 

Yet, a month after Cady’s sixteenth birthday, the Heron family was required to move back to America. Although the redhead was quite excited to finally attend real school and make human friends, Cady’s heart broke when she realized that Meria would no longer be at her beck and call. The night before their flight, Cady didn’t sleep, hugging her pet lion while smothering her dirty fur in kisses. The morning of the family’s departure, the Herons had dropped Meria off at a nearby sanctuary and Cady shared one final goodbye to her best friend, refusing to look back when she walked away. 

Ever since then, Cady hasn’t had a pet to call her own with the fear of having to wish them goodbye like she had done with Meria the lion.

-

“Ah Janis, welcome!” Cady’s father greeted, allowing for his daughter’s “friend” to enter their homely abode. The Herons were fond of Janis since she was Cady’s first friend. They enjoyed her personality and loved seeing the pair together, the two always had a smile washed over their faces. She was coming over for a study date which usually ends with the two cuddling under the blanket while watching a movie.

Janis steps into the tiny foyer while nervously waving at her girlfriend’s parents, since they didn’t know that the two were dating. “Hi Mister and Mrs Heron, is Cady upstairs?” She asks politely. Despite her nerves, there was not a single word she tripped over in that sentence.

“Oh no. she’s currently on her way back from Mathletes practice, they’re preparing for the next competition!” Mrs. Heron excitedly states, proud of her daughter’s accomplishments. Next to Kevin Gnapoor, Cady was the co-captain of the team and despite mathletes being declared as “social suicide,” she was proud to be apart of a lovely team. “You got something on your shoulder there dear, let me get that for you.” Mrs. Heron awkwardly reaches her hand towards Janis, removing a long strand of fur from her black denim jacket.

“Thank you, didn’t have a lint-roller so there’s cat fur all over my clothing. I’m sorry.” Janis explains, remembering how she propped Nunu onto her shoulder before heading to the Heron household. Nunu was one furry cat, but Janis didn’t mind, she would only become annoyed when it was time to groom the mini carpet.

An excited expression forms on the Heron’s faces, gesturing Janis to follow them down the hallway. Weaving through many doors, Janis found herself standing in a room occupied with bookshelves and a family photo taken in front of a tent, she snickered at the five-year-old Cady smiling brightly with her white teeth. Janis watches as Mrs. Heron drags her fingers along a row of photobooks.. “Did Cady ever tell you about Meria the lion? She was her pet.” She questions, pulling out a photobook.

Janis’s jaw dropped in astonishment, unaware that her girlfriend had a pet lion in Kenya. She was aware that Cady and her family worked with animals, but she didn’t know that her girlfriend actually owned one. She shakes her head and walks closer, examining the photobook further as she follows Mrs. Heron’s fingers gliding across the photos. Mrs. Heron points at one, it’s 10-year-old Cady holding the newborn in her arms with the most gleeful expression. “The mother lion died while giving birth and we decided to take care of it.” Mr. Heron says, remembering the day when his daughter walked in the tent with a lion cub cradled in her arms.

Janis follows Mrs. Heron’s fingers to the next page where it’s a photo of 12-year-old Cady being toppled over by her lion. “Meria’s named after one of the flowers native to Kenya, such a sweetheart!” She coos, her voice slowly raising in pitch. Cady’s girlfriend was so enamored with how cute she was next to a lion; the lion clearly got the affectionate personality from the redhead.

There was one final picture Mrs. Heron showed Janis, the day of the Heron family’s departure. Her heart sank when she noticed the bright red color across Cady’s face along with the teary-eyed expression that replaced her usual bright smile. The photo was of young Cady hugging Meria tightly with her parents standing in the background. “Poor Cady was devastated to leave her behind.” Mr. Heron sighs, remembering his daughter’s gloomy expression when they first boarded the airplane. “We’re planning to visit Kenya sometime soon, the sanctuary we left Meria at has been sending updates on her which is nice.” 

I’m sure Cady will love that.” Janis says; she knew that a visit to Kenya would surely bring her girlfriend a large amount of excitement. With every moment that Cady gets, excitement seeps through her body when she discovers fascinating information or is watching a documentary on Animal Planet. Just imagining her girlfriend’s reaction to finding out that her family will be going back to Kenya for a visit brought a blush to her cheeks. 

Their conversation is interrupted by the sound of locks unclicking at the front of the house. Janis waves goodbye at Mr. and Mrs. Heron while making her way towards her girlfriend. When the redhead notices Janis, she smiles and is eager to reach out for a hug. The large gap between them closes as their arms wrap around one another, Cady’s head pressed against the chest of her girlfriend. When they pull away, Janis notices the slightly big mathletes varsity jacket that draped over Cady’s small body. Something about the mathlete being dressed in oversized clothing made Janis’s heart flutter. After greeting each other, they make their way upstairs as Janis examines the pictures hung against the wall; the Heron family certainly loved pictures.

“Sorry, I probably should’ve told you to come later or something. I forgot about practice.” Cady apologizes, throwing her varsity jacket onto her desk chair while removing her pair of beaten up sneakers. Janis drops her backpack onto the floor and throws herself onto Cady’s bed. 

“It’s all cool.” Janis replies. “By the way, why did you never tell me about your freakin’ pet lion!” Janis yells, raising her voice at the end of her sentence. Cady perks up an eyebrow, confused how Janis discovered that unknown information. Then, it clicks. Janis walked from the back of the hallway from the room where the photo books were located, her parents must’ve shown her pictures of Meria.

She groans and throws herself onto the bed next to Janis, face-first. “You saw photos didn’t you?” Cady turns her body to face her girlfriend. Janis turns herself and nods. “It makes me sad to talk about. She was my first friend.” She explains, memories of her and Meria slowly flooding into her head.

Her gaze softened when noticing Cady’s gloomy expression. “My bad, do you wanna still wanna talk about her?” She asks, reaching her girlfriend’s hand to hold. Their fingertips pressing together before interlacing. 

“It’s not that it’s a bad kind of sad, more like, brings me to tears y’know?” The redhead tries to explain, having trouble articulating her thoughts. Although Cady found her explanation confusing, Janis managed to understand her girlfriend’s feelings about discussing Meria. “My parents _tried_ getting like a dog or something, but I’m just afraid.” When her artistic girlfriend furrows her eyebrows, Cady provides more information about the fear behind adopting a pet. “I don’t wanna say goodbye like I did to Meria… it’s been so long since I’ve seen her.” 

Janis lazily rests her hand on Cady’s hip, pulling her closer, her body awkwardly scooting across the mattress. “Kind of the process of everything in general. We have to say goodbye at one point. Besides, it’s the memories you make with them that last forever, you remember and cherish those memories.” The redhead nods her head, her memories with Meria bringing a small smile onto her face.

“I guess you’re right.” Cady eventually says, propping herself onto her forearm. “Thanks for making me feel better.” She uses her other hand to brush Janis’s hair behind her ear and slightly turns her head for a better angle. Cady leans in slowly and plants a small kiss onto her girlfriend’s lips, the two press their foreheads together after pulling apart.

Their heart rates increase rapidly when their faces are close together, Cady’s hand slowly drifting to rest onto the dip of Janis’s hip. When the more artistic of the two slightly flinches, letting out a small yelp, Cady lets out a small chuckle at the discovery of Janis being ticklish. “Also, since you don’t have a pet of your own… do you wanna meet Nunu tomorrow after school?” 

A small shine appears in the redhead’s eyes as she pulls away. Janis and Cady both sit up straight, excitement already exerting through the body language of the latter. “Nunu? Is, is that your pet?” She nearly screams, her arms placing themselves in front of her body, hands clenched into fists ready to punch eagerly into the air. When Janis nods, Cady’s excitement could be enough to make her burst through the ceiling of her bedroom. She shoots up straight from her bed and begins bouncing in place. “How come you never told me!”

“I was going to, always forgot.” Janis says, a big grin washing over her face as she admires her girlfriend; Cady was acting like she won the lottery. “I got him after the whole incident with Regina in middle school, he was my little buddy.” Her hand reaches into her pocket, retrieving her smartphone. Janis stares at the screen for a bit before showing Cady a picture. It was Nunu loafing on top of Janis's canvas - thank god it was empty.

“Oh my god, he is so adorable!” Cady squeals, Janis is sure that her pupils are somehow forming a star-shape. The redhead sits back down next to her girlfriend, interlocking her arm with Janis’s while begging for more pictures of Nunu the cat. “He is so cute~” Cady coos, using a baby-like voice while admiring a picture of Nunu dressed in a pirate costume.

Remembering what they were originally supposed to be doing, Janis shuts her phone off and lets out a laugh when Cady makes a pouty-face. “I’m supposed to be studying for a math test and _you’re_ supposed to be writing an essay.” She points out, reaching down to the floor to grab her backpack. When Cady opens her mouth to speak, Janis presses a finger against her lips. “Ah, ah ah. We agreed to focus this time, remember?”

The animal lover lets out a sigh. “Fine…"

When she notices Cady dramatically walking over to her desk all mopey-like, Janis smiles and rolls her eyes, thinking of a way to motivate her girlfriend to do homework. Then, she had a light-bulb moment. “How about this, for every, let’s see - 5 sentences you write, I’ll show you a picture of Nunu.” If Cady were in a cartoon, her ears would’ve perked up dramatically with exclamation marks appearing over her head. Instead, the redhead eagerly opened her backpack and retrieved her laptop, ready to write an essay. 

“And for every 2 problems you get right, you’ll get a kiss.” Cady bargains, knowing that Janis will need a form of motivation as well. The two always tutored each other in their worst topics; Cady helped Janis with math and history, the other helped her with english and art. When they shake hands and agree with the compromise, the two begin working the evening away.  
  
-

[ crackhead hours ]

[ caddy ] was no one gonna tell me about NUNU

[ hoover damien ] such a sweet cat, he loves us

[ caddy ] us???

[ caddy ] HOW COME EVERYONE GOT TO MEET HIM EXCEPT ME >:((((

[ reginald ] I’m sure Janis will introduce him to you very soon. 

[ gretch ] when u went to ur aunts one weekend, we all went to janis’s for movies

[ karen with a d ] nunu klawed my hair alot

[ artandspace ] ahhhh good times. and yes regina is right caddy ur meeting him tomorrow chill out

[ reginald ] A “study date” two nights in a row… have fun you two ;).

[ caddy ] whyd u put it in quotes

[ hoover damien ] she means ur hooking up.

[ artandspace ] DAMIEN

[ caddy ] were gfs of course were hooking up???

[ artandspace ] CADDY NO-

[ gretch ] oh no, they mean sex caddy

[ hoover damien ] BAHAHHAHAHAHHA

[ reginald ] Sometimes we forget Cady doesn’t know a lot of slang...

[ Cady to Janis <3 ]

[ Cady ] im sorry. i didnt know that meant sex hnnng

[ Janis <3 ] lmao no worries. but yes were gfs so eventually we will ;)

[ Janis <3 ] oof sorry if that made u uncomfortable

[ Cady ] no its fine! ur speaking the truth anyway ;)))

[ Cady ] anyway imma sleeeeeeep. nighty night <3

[ Janis <3 ] sdkfjsdjkf jeez. and night night caddy <3

-

“What’s up with your crazy eyes?” 

It’s a Monday afternoon at Northshore high and usually eye bags are present on people’s faces, desperately wanting school to be over. Mondays are definitely the worst day of the week for school since the weekend has just ended. Despite the people around being exhausted, Cady is being fueled by adrenaline and pure joy knowing that she’ll finally be meeting her girlfriend’s cat. For many people, meeting someone’s pet wouldn’t be as exciting, but for the animal lover, Cady was incredibly gleeful that early afternoon. She wishes that the remainder of the school day will speed by in a second, the joyful girl would do _anything_ for time to go faster.

“She’s meeting Nunu tonight, remember?” Regina reminds Damian, setting down a lunch tray. She takes a seat next to Karen, passing her an extra plate of tater tots - Karen _really_ loves tater tots. As the rest of the group piles in, Cady is found darting her head rapidly in different directions of the cafeteria. “Snap your head like that again and you’ll get whiplash Cady.”

“I’m looking for Janis, she wasn’t in the art studio when I left class.” The animal lover says, wondering where her girlfriend had gone. She’s been looking around the cafeteria for a while, her sandwich being left on her ziploc bag. When she catches the familiar blonde-dyed hair, her smile grows bigger and waves at her girlfriend. If Cady had a tail, it definitely would be wagging.

“Please remind me how we managed to fit everyone here…” Janis laughs, still amazed at how everyone was capable of squeezing into the tiny cafeteria tables. She slides next to her girlfriend and plants a small kiss on her cheek, pulling out her smartphone. Knowing that Cady was incredibly impatient for meeting Nunu, she pulls out a picture of the cat. “Mr. Duvall called me into his office, something about being a finalist.” Janis brings up while her girlfriend scrolls through her phone for more pictures of Nunu.

“That’s exciting, was it that competition you entered a while ago?” Gretchen asks, taking a sip from her water bottle. Janis entered an art competition that was district-wide, the theme was “religious” and with the help of Cady, she was inspired to create a piece of painting based on the Romanticism period. 

“We’re going to that art show, no doubt.” Damian says. He turns to Cady and notices how she’s still scrolling through photos of the cat. “Wow, you really love animals don’t you?” 

“She’s from Kenya. Of course she loves animals.” Karen adds, trying to stack her tater tots as one tower.

“Cady, tell them about your lion!”

When the group lets out a collective gasp, a look of intrigue begins to spread on everyone’s faces while Cady tells the story of Meria the lion. From the conversation she had with Janis the other day, the animal lover felt less saddened when telling the entire story behind her pet lion. Whenever she felt a bit saddened or upset when telling a certain part of the story, she reached out for Janis’s hand to hold for comfort. After the story, the group had demanded pictures of Cady with her lion and the redhead promised to bring some photos the day after. For the first time in a while, Cady enjoyed telling the story of Meria the lion.

-

When the bell rings for dismissal, Cady begins sprinting towards her girlfriend’s car, shoving people aside in the hallway yelling “sorry!” When she spots the student parking lot and Janis walking towards her vehicle, the redhead leaps towards her girlfriend and swings her arms around Janis’s neck, nearly toppling the two over onto the hot cement. If it weren’t for Janis’s gigantic backpack, Cady would’ve jumped on for a piggy-back ride so instead, she plants a kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek and makes her way to the passenger seat. When the two are ready, Janis starts the drive to her household while Cady sits in the seat restlessly trying to contain her energy.

By the time they arrived at Janis’s home, Cady was behaving like a toddler going to the ice cream shop. Her smile was incredibly wide, there was a spring in her step, and Janis was _pretty sure_ that there was some sort of subtle squeal coming from her girlfriend. When Janis’s keys entered the keyhole of the front door, Cady began jumping in place, her heart rate slowly picking up due to the adrenaline that has been accumulating throughout the day. She enters her girlfriend’s home and her head begins to point towards every direction to look for the cat. Janis grabs Cady by the arm and takes her upstairs, the usual hangout place for Nunu. She opened her bedroom door and there he was, Nunu the Siamese cat.

If Cady were in a cartoon, there would be hearts popping out of her eyes because Janis’s girlfriend immediately fell head over heels for this cat. “Hi Nunu!” She greets quietly, her voice remaining at whisper level. The redhead reaches her hand for the cat to sniff and when Nunu bunts against Cady’s hand, Janis was sure that her girlfriend was about to faint.

“I got him after that pool party thing with Regina, my parents thought I needed more friends.” Janis tells her girlfriend, remembering the day she first met Nunu. “You can carry him if you want. He loves attention.” Janis says, placing down their backpacks by the foot of her bed. She picks up her beloved cat and slowly hands him to Cady who is already reaching out her arms to hold the fluffy ball. Her girlfriend cradles Nunu like a baby, using some sort of motherly voice that made Janis’s knees shake and her heart drop. The final straw for Janis was when Cady began scrunching her nose, rubbing her nose against the cat’s. She was left completely speechless.

“I can just look at you forever… you’re so adorable!” She exclaims, nearly on the verge of tears of how adorable this cat was. When Nunu starts to squirm out of her arms, Cady reluctantly lets go and watches him walk to the windowsill of Janis's room. She waves goodbye at the cat and when she looks back at Janis, she perks an eyebrow when seeing her jaw slightly open. “Don’t be jealous of him Janis.” She teases, taking a seat on her bed. 

It catches the two by surprise when Janis leans down to peck a quick kiss on Cady’s lips. They pull away, their eyes widened with a dopey grin on their faces. Janis stares at Cady then back at the door. She goes to close the door and sits next to Cady, her hands lazily resting on her girlfriend’s hips. The two share another kiss, this one more passionate than the last yet still had a hint of tenderness to it. Cady’s hands find themselves wrapping around Janis’s neck. They continue kissing, Cady eventually straddling the lap of Janis’s. The couple pulls away for some air. “So... homework?” Janis offers, her voice sounding breathless while smiling. 

A smirk appears on Cady’s face as her hands begin roaming underneath Janis’s sweatshirt, letting out a small chuckle when her girlfriend flinches at the sudden contact. “Yeah, let's do that. Rather not makeout with the little cat in the room." Cady answers, removing her hands from Janis to reach for her backpack by the foot of the bed. When she retrieves her textbook, Nunu jumps onto Janis's bed and stars to climb on top of the laminated pages of Cady's history textbook, sniffing the pages curiously. Eventually, he walks around in a circle and lies down, placing a paw in front of him. "I'll do math first then." She chuckles, retrieving her math notebook.

"Sorry about that, he likes lying down on anything rectangular or square-like." Janis laughs, petting her cat's head. "By the way, you're free to visit anytime. Nunu can be like your own cat too."   
  
Cady lets out a gasp. "No way! This is the best day of my life." She exclaims, doing a little happy dance while writing her first math problem down in the notebook.

The couple began working on their homework, perhaps having the most fun on a study date that they ever had.


	4. valentines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's February 13th and Cady was unaware of Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Stepping out of the stuffy building, Janis kisses her mathlete girlfriend goodbye after their competition is over. Northshore once again has taken the title of “undefeated” with their consecutive win streak of the ICMT championships. For months they’ve been winning by a landslide or in sudden death rounds - Cady as their go-to gal for those close matchups. With her girlfriend in the audience silently cheering the other on, competitions have felt more easier with the extra encouragement. When the redhead waves goodbye to Janis, who is pulling out of the parking lot, Kevin Gnapoor steps up next to Cady, resting an arm on her shoulder.

“So Africa, what’re you getting Janis for Valentines?” He asks. Kevin gradually noticed Janis appearing at their competitions lately and realized that the two were dating during their last competition when he caught the artist picking up Cady in a congratulatory hug, spinning her around. 

She furrowed her eyebrows and turned her head to look at Kevin, looking like a confused puppy. “What’s Valentines?” Cady asks, unfamiliar with the term. Her confusion only becomes worse when Kevin lets out a large groan, dramatically sighing at Cady’s lack of knowledge of probably the most romantic day for couples. 

“Dude, I know you lived in a tent and all, but seriously? Did your parents ever celebrate it back in Kenya?” Kevin queried, arms crossing in front of his chest. When Cady shakes her head no, he sighs and begins explaining a date that Cady shouldn’t forget in her entire life. “February 14 is Valentine's Day, it celebrates romantic love. Couples get each other candy, flowers, gifts, and sometimes sex.” He tries to avert the conversation away from the last topic when noticing Cady’s grimace. “My bad. Anyway, it’s expressing your love for people. You feel me?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

“So, I get Janis like candy or something?” Cady hesitated, trying to process the concept of Valentine's Day in her head. Her eyes widen when she recalls the date of Valentine’s Day, February 14 - Cady stiffens when she realizes that she only has a couple of hours before stores close to get a gift for tomorrow When Kevin laughs at her for being unprepared, Cady smacks her friend against the stomach. “What am I supposed to do? It’s literally tomorrow!” She ranted, running her fingers through her hair.

The captain of mathletes takes pity on poor Cady, she really didn’t know about Valentine’s Day at all. So, he decides to lend a helping hand for his fellow teammate. “Africa, if you walk into any store and look for red and pink stuff, you’re fine.” He reassures the panicking girl, placing his hands onto her shoulders. “Just get like a bear or something.”

Cady scrolls through her smartphone, locating the nearest store that was open late at night. When she finally finds one not too far from here, she wishes the mathletes team goodbye and enters her car, following the GPS directions to the nearby store. Somehow, the fact that Cady had nothing to give for her girlfriend on Valentine’s Day was more nerve wracking than her competition she just had. She didn’t want to come off as a bad girlfriend, so hopefully Janis wouldn’t mind about the cliche cheesy presents from a nearby convenience store. She pulls into the parking lot of the store and rushes inside, eyes scanning the aisles of the store.

Relief and excitement soars through her body when she finds the aisles that were dedicated for Valentine’s Day gifts. An overwhelming feeling took over Cady when she discovered the many different options that were presented before her. There were different teddy bears that held various items in their paws such as a heart or a mini bouquet of flowers, there were chocolate boxes that were shaped as a heart, and the smell of roses lingered through the aisle. Cady felt pressured by all of the decisions for gifts and felt completely lost on what to purchase for her girlfriend. When she receives a text from her parents about her whereabouts, the redhead decides to go big or go home. One arm clutches onto many bags of sour gummies while the other arm holds a giant stuffed bear in a choke-hold; this was certainly a sight for the cashier.

Cady throws the gifts into the backseat and begins her drive home. The fact that Janis had to parade around the entire school day tomorrow with all of these gifts in tow didn’t occur to Cady, her mind was already occupied with trying to figure out a message to write in a card that she decided to simply write on some printer paper. When the mathlete arrives home with her arms full of gifts, she dumps them all onto her bedroom floor and snaps a quick picture.

[ caddy added reginald, hoover damien, gretch, karen with a d to the chat ]

[ caddy ] gifts.png

[ caddy ] is this fine for tomorrow?

[ reginald ] Oh my god.

[ hoover damien ] honey- you didn’t have to go bankrupt for valentines day

[ caddy ] it was last minute and i sort of went autopilot in cvs. 

[ gretch ] did u not know about valentines or sumthin?

[ caddy ] no! when janis left after my math comp kevin asked me what i was gonna get her. he explained it to me then

[ hoover damien ] poor poor cady still adjusting to american customs

[ karen with a d ] heart eyes emoji 

[ caddy ] thank you karen, at least *someone* appreciates my effort

[ hoover damien ] janis definitely will appreciate this dw ;))))))

[ reginald ] Imagining her reaction is already making me crack up.

[ caddy ] will she like this???? hng i honestly dont know what she wanted im such a bad gf

[ gretch ] nononono youre doing great sweetie, youre an amazing gf to janis

[ hoover damien ] yeah ur fine caddy, janis is gonna be blushing like crazy~ tomorrow

[ reginald ] Btw Cady, how big is that bear?

[ caddy ] haha anywayyyy nighty night!!!!!!

Cady purposefully leaves the group chat on mute, allowing for the others to talk among themselves about the size of the bear. Maybe she had splurged a bit too much for Valentine’s… a five foot tall bear may have been overkill. She gently rearranges the giant bear and candy against the wall then goes over to her desk, writing a small Valentine’s Day note for her girlfriend. It wasn’t much, it was simply a piece of printer paper folded in half with the cover being Cady’s sad attempt at calligraphy along with a smiley face. Once she got to the content portion of the card, she began writing whatever came to mind.

_Dear Janis,_

_I didn’t know Valentine’s Day was a thing until yesterday, so these gifts were kind of last minute. Kevin said something about expressing your love for others and hopefully the presents and card meet up to the expectations? Anyway, thank you for being an amazing girlfriend and best friend, sticking with me even though I was a complete dick to you and Damian late junior year. Thank you for listening to my late night rambles about my time in Kenya (even if it may be 3am :P) and for helping me with all my English essays (don’t you dare correct my grammar in this card >:c). Although we’ve never said it, I guess now is the time. I love you Janis. _

_Sincerely,_

_Cady_

-

It’s early morning and Cady’s parents drive their daughter to school. There were no friends or girlfriends brought along, it was just their daughter and a gigantic bear sitting in the backseat. The Herons would’ve offered Janis a ride, but her parents didn’t have work early in the morning, and they offered to drive their daughter to school after catching some breakfast at a nearby pancake house. It was pure luck, Cady didn’t want her girlfriend to see the Valentine’s Day surprise beforehand, wanting the presents to remain a surprise. For what seemed to be such a big day, Janis hasn’t made any sort of big deal about Valentine’s Day, there was zero mention of the event the day prior. Nevertheless, Cady wanted the day to be special, she really loved Janis.

Her parents pull into the parking lot and Cady is relieved to find only a couple cars; there weren't many people at the school yet. Cady gathers her school belongings and attempts to devise a plan to bring in the gigantic bear in. After a couple of minutes, she settles with placing the candy within her backpack and carrying the bear around in a chokehold. She wishes her parents goodbye as they drive away, carefully walking into the school building. The bear was roughly a few inches shorter than Cady, making it quite rough to haul the bear into school. While making a painfully long journey to the school entrance, she hears someone call out her name.

“Really went all out for the artist Africa.” Cady is delighted to hear Kevin’s voice, she did need some help carrying the bear into the school. Seeing his friend struggle, he takes the legs of the bear and the two begin walking inside, occasionally bumping into fellow peers. “When I said a bear I meant like a teddy bear… not an entire grizzly.” 

Cady chuckles while the two walk towards her locker, an area where she could take a quick break from hauling the bear around. “Go big or go home, am I right?” She laughed, remembering how she impulsively grabbed the bear after receiving a text from her parents. By the time they arrive at her locker, Kevin spots his own girlfriend and says goodbye to Cady. She continues holding the bear in a choke-hold while attempting to open her locker.

“I can see why you didn’t answer Regina’s question about the bear...” The redhead turns around, finding Damian looking the giant teddy bear up and down. He takes the light-brown stuffed animal from his friend’s arms and holds it himself, squeezing the bear very tightly. Cady opens her backpack to take out the bags of candy and a bow tie from an old Halloween costume. She wraps the bow tie around the neck of the bear, sliding in the bags of candy, securing the gifts. “Ooo, can I have these?” He asks, tempted to open the bag of sour gummy worms. 

Cady places notebooks that weren’t needed within the small locker. “Don’t you dare touch those, it's for Janis.” She snaps, glaring at her friend. If Damian didn’t have the bear in hand, he would’ve raised his hands in defense, so instead he slowly backs away a couple of steps. As more people begin to pile within the hallway, he realizes the large amount of space the bear takes over when fellow classmates continuously bump into the giant stuffed animal.

“How do you plan on stowing this? Janis’s backpack ain’t that big honey.” Damian mentions, seeing how the bear couldn’t even fit into the tiny school lockers. When he notices Cady’s small groan and a slight smack on the forehead, it’s apparent that she didn’t think that detail through. She closes the locker and retrieves the bear from Damian’s arms, slowly weaving through the crowd of people with her friend escorting her out of the building. “Maybe she’ll leave it in homeroom and pick it up later.” 

Arriving at their usual meetup place, they find the iconic trio already occupying the bench, their eyes bulging and mouths gaping when they see the gigantic bear. The trio stands up to help Cady with the bear, gently lowering the stuffed animal onto the bench, so their friend would no longer have to carry it around. “Yes, I know. It’s a lot.” Cady sighs, taking a seat next to the bear, tightening the bow so the bags of candy wouldn’t fall off.

“I wonder how Janis will react, she doesn’t like stuffed animals from what I can remember.” Gretchen blurts out, only to immediately place a hand over her mouth after spilling a small secret. 

The redhead sinks lower into the bench, slowly regretting the decision to buy the most gigantic stuffed animal for a person who supposedly hates them. The rest of the group begins to crowd around Cady, trying to reassure that her decision wasn’t a mistake. Regina and Karen both informed their friend that it was better than showing up empty-handed - a kiss would’ve probably been sufficient according to Damian. Nevertheless, Cady felt completely embarrassed about her decisions with gifts, wishing that the bear was at least a bit smaller. When she throws her head back and lets out a frustrated groan, she finds herself staring at a familiar shirt. Cady sits up straight and notices Janis standing behind the bench, holding a black container of food in her hands. 

“Did I miss something? Caddy looks like she’ll curl up in a ball and cry.” Janis said with a perked eyebrow, squeezing through the tight circle her friend group created around Cady. When her eyes meet the black beady eyeballs of a gigantic stuffed bear, Janis’s mouth slightly opens. “Ah. That’s why.” Regina tugs on Damian's sleeve and nudges her head to the side, gesturing to the rest of the friend group to let the couple have some space. When they leave, Janis holds out the black container. “Happy Valentine’s Day… got you some food from that pancake house. I know the cinnamon roll ones are your favorite.” 

Cady’s heart flutters while she accepts the gift, cheeks blushing red. She mutters a quiet thank you while her heart continues to perform somersaults as Janis admires the giant bear next to her. “I barely found out about Valentine’s last night, Kevin explained it to me.” Cady blurts out, feeling the need to explain the giant bear. Before her girlfriend could get a word in, she continued speaking. “I ran by the nearest CVS and just bought whatever I saw and your favorite candy. And I barely found out you don’t really like stuffed animals so I-”

She’s interrupted by Janis scooting her over on the bench to sit down. “Caddy, don’t worry. I love it.” Janis consoled, shifting her body to face her girlfriend. “It’s true, stuffed animals are sort of ‘eh,’ but this giant bear-” She gestures towards their pal sitting on the other end of the bench. “I absolutely love it.”

A wave of relief washes over Cady, feeling less pressure now that Janis has confirmed to love the gift. The redhead realizes that there’s another part of the gift that was missing, so she pulls out the card from her backpack and hands it to Janis. She blushes when her girlfriend compliments the calligraphy, recalling the many pieces of paper thrown away because the calligraphy was horrendous. As she opens the card to read, Cady focuses her eye contact on the friend group standing nearby; the entire group had a knowingly smirk on their faces while suggestively raising their eyebrows. Her attention returns back to Janis when she hears a small breath escape from her lips, she must’ve read _that part_. She closes the card and looks up at Cady with watery eyes. 

“That last part… is it true?” Janis asked, trying to contain her excitement that was clearly showing through a small smile sneaking onto her face. When Cady nods enthusiastically, Janis is at a loss for words. The only words she could form were the one’s written at the end of Cady’s letters. “I love you too.” 

Her girlfriend places the container of food in between the legs of the giant bear and initiates a kiss. It was quick and chaste, they didn’t want to be accused of making out on the bench by nearby students and supervisors. When they pull away, the two softly chuckle. “I love you more.” Cady whispers, only loud enough for Janis to hear. Their lips pressed together once again for a quick second. 

Janis lets out a small scoff after their second short kiss. “Wow, you went all out and all I did was bring you some food.” The bell rings for homeroom and the couple stands up, gathering their gifts from one another and start making their way to Ms. Norbury’s classroom. “Totally unrelated note, would you want to go on a date tonight?” 

Cady laughs as she stores the container of food in her backpack. “I would love to. And food is the most superior gift, so I think you’re fine.”

When the rest of the group catches up with the two lovebirds, they find Janis storing the bags of her favorite candy in her backpack. Once they were safely stored in her backpack, Janis props the teddy bear up on her shoulders, parading around the school halls with a giant bear sitting on her shoulders as a display of “look what my girlfriend got me!” Although the bear’s head surely smacked itself against the doorways of the hallways and support beams, she doesn’t mind. Janis wanted to do everything to show off what Cady had bought her, even if it meant skipping ahead of the group with a giant bear flopping around on her shoulders. Many pictures of the couple were taken when Janis took the bear into one arm and Cady into the other - they definitely wouldn’t hear the end from their friends. 

Cady and Janis’s first Valentine’s Day together was quite an amazing experience.


	5. we like each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cady and Janis both discover that the other has feelings for each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wrote this while pining over my own crush lol

All moisture within Cady’s mouth evaporated when her eyes laid upon Janis casually strolling into her bedroom an affectionate expression on her face. Cady’s heart leaped into her throat while her stomach dropped in the opposite direction as she gently placed a book she was reading onto her nightstand - a gift from Janis. She scooted herself onto one side of the bed, making room for her visitor. When Janis removed her shoes and hopped onto the bed, Cady couldn’t help, but avert her eyes anywhere Janis wasn’t. The room was silent, the only sound reverberating throughout the household being the washing and drying machine working away. It was approximately 8 o’clock at night and Cady didn’t know how to confront the situation at hand; Janis and Cady both like one another.

When Janis moved closer, Cady’s breath hitched as she pulled her knees closer to her body, wrapping her arms around them. Although the redhead wasn’t looking in her direction, Janis still made an effort to maintain partial eye contact with her best friend. She fiddled with the rings wrapped around her fingers, attempting to find a way to articulate her thoughts that pounded against her mind - Cady was trying to do the same.

Earlier that evening, Janis was proudly presenting her artwork at a gallery for Northshore. She confidently stood by her canvas, hiding her nerves by positioning her hands within the deep pockets of her denim jacket and picked at the loose threads in there. She watched as many of her classmates, teachers, and family members of peers walked by the area reserved for her, casually shooting a smile with those who complimented the artpiece. Janis felt relieved when the patrons of the art gallery would congratulate the young artist for her hard work, there hasn’t been any negative attitude displayed. 

The theme of her painting revolved around identity. Forever remaining on a canvas there was the background of a galaxy. Light emitting around the bright stars gradually formed the colors of a rainbow, a very subtle sign that implied the true meaning behind the painting. Slightly below the center of the galaxy, there was a silhouette of evidently two females holding one another’s hands, faces looking at one another’s. Janis considers this to be one of her greatest pieces of work since her inspiration for the painting was extremely strong.

As the crowd began dying down, the two final patrons of the art gallery were Cady and Damian, both excited to see their best friend’s piece of work. Janis greeted her friends when they approached her area, giving each a hug - the hug with Cady lingered for a small moment. After Janis’s small explanation behind her painting, she noticed Cady’s eyes slowly widen while Damian simply adored the painting. Her body became heavier with each breath that was taken, eyes flickering towards Cady very frequently. The confident body language disappeared when her best friend muttered a quiet “excuse me” and nearly sprinted out of the gymnasium. Damian spun around, raising an eyebrow at Cady’s dramatic exit and became very confused when Janis ran after her.

She found Cady standing in the hallway, pacing back and forth with hands running through her hair. Janis walked over to the redhead, placing hands on both her shoulders to calm Cady’s nerves. 

“That painting, it was of us wasn’t it? It was when Damian took that photo of us walking down the plaza.”

Cady’s comment took Janis by surprise, her hands tightening their grip onto her friend’s shoulders. Anything subtle would never pass with Cady, she caught onto details way too quickly. There was no use in lying, so Janis nodded her head after releasing her strong grip on Cady’s shoulders. After letting people exit the hallway, they continued their conversation.

“Caddy, I- look, the painting yes it… it was about us and our relationship. I thought you wouldn’t notice it, but you did.” Janis chuckles nervously. “I really like you Caddy, I always have ever since I met you.”

Instead of being met with Cady’s soothing voice - which Janis desperately needed - she was met with the squeak of her sneakers as she bolted down the hallway. The sound of the entrance doors opening and slamming filled the hallway and Janis was left alone. She eventually found herself inside Damian’s car when he entered the hallway, encouraging Janis to follow Cady when he mentioned that their best friend has feelings for Janis. 

Now here they were, awkwardly sitting on the bed of Cady, one looking away from the other. After a couple of moments passed and the laundry machines died down, they both spoke out simultaneously. A blush accompanied by an affectionate smile appeared on their faces afterwards. Cady gestures to Janis to speak first, her head finally facing towards her best friend and the sight of her eyes gave Janis the relief that she needed.

Janis takes a deep breath. “Damian told me you like me too… is that true?” She tries not to point out at the rhyme she didn’t mean to do. She was met with Cady nodding slowly, noticing her attempt at maintaining eye contact during this stressful exchange with each other. Knowing how nervous she may be, Janis holds out her hand for Cady to hold - she accepts. When their hands find each other’s, the atmosphere within the room changed. “You are the most kind human being I’ve ever met. You’re so passionate at what you do and you always put a smile on my face with the simplest of actions. I don’t know what else I should say Caddy, but I really like you and… I hope we can go somewhere with this.” 

Janis notices her other hand being taken by Cady this time, their fingers beginning to interlace with one another. After a deep breath, the redhead finds the confidence to speak. “I’ve liked you since the first month I transferred here to Northshore Janis. You are never afraid to stand up for yourself and you’re so caring. Even after my plastic phase, you somehow still found it in you to keep being my friend and yes, I agree. I hope we can go somewhere with this too.”

They find themselves holding hands, Cady’s thumb lazily tracing circles on the back of Janis’s hands. There was one more step the two had to take for their relationship to change. “Do you like, want to go on a date or something then? Tomorrow maybe?” Janis finally says, her gaze softening as she stares into the eyes of her soon-to-be girlfriend.

Cady chuckles. “That would be grool.” 

They sit there in silence again, their hearts pounding against their chest loudly. “What happens now?” Janis asks, her facing slowly drifting closer to Cady’s without knowing.

“I don’t know much about relationships, but I think this.”

Cady’s face drifts closer to Janis’s and they close the long distance between their lips and share a kiss. It started off slow, both of them unfamiliar with the kissing territory, but gradually find a rhythm they both seem to enjoy. Janis’s hands find themselves cupping Cady’s face while the other’s hands slowly drifted down onto her girlfriend’s hips. Her _girlfriend’s_ hips. They find themselves sharing kiss after kiss, forgetting everything else in the world. Eventually, Janis pulls away and presses their foreheads together, feeling the warmth of Cady’s breath on her own lips as they catch their breaths. They open their eyes and release a small chuckle as Janis’s thumbs trace the curve of Cady’s bottom lip. One final kiss is pressed against each other’s lips and they pull away completely, looking at one another longingly. 

Sooner or later, they find themselves within each other’s arms. They’re both lying down on the bed with Janis’s arms wrapped around Cady’s upper torso. Cady’s head is pressed against her girlfriend’s chest, her arms wrapping themselves around Janis’s hips. Smiles are stuck onto their faces, still coming down from the high caused by their first kiss with each other. Janis occasionally presses small kisses onto Cady’s forehead while the other lightly kisses her jaw as they have a small conversation about how public they would like to be.

Within their minds, the main thought going through both of their head’s was simply the word _finally._


	6. matchmaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ms. Norbury plays matchmaker for Cady after learning certain information...

Ms. Norbury finds herself walking into the student restroom during lunch time; she left the house in a rush to avoid being late, forgetting her lanyard of keys that provided her access to different areas of the school reserved for teachers. Today wasn’t too dreadful and although she may have shared her marriage life with a new student, Ms. Norbury was enjoying herself. She finds the restroom to be empty, letting out a silent cheer when there’s no students texting or gossiping in the small bathroom. While walking towards the sink to wash her hands, Ms. Norbury hears a faint sniffle coming from one of the stalls. The sound of crying was all too familiar with the teacher, so she turned around and found someone in the bathroom stall wearing socks and sandals - it was Cady Heron the new transfer student. 

After completely failing to begin a conversation with that girl with dyed blonde hair, Cady couldn’t build up the courage to find her again at lunch. Her senses went haywire around her, the girl certainly makes it difficult for Cady to function. She smelled like a field of roses and her gentle smirk would make the transfer student’s stomach perform somersaults. Cady desperately wanted to become closer with the girl in homeroom, she seemed so approachable and kind-hearted especially after the quick advice about Dawn Schweitzer and changing her name to Marie in French class. When everyone laughed at her for not knowing about the lavatory pass, Janis was the only one that remained silent. Yet, when the bell rang, Cady found herself to be diving out of the classroom immediately. Her infatuation only continued when her homeroom classmate ended up to be in many of her classes. 

Ms. Norbury gently knocks on the bathroom door. “Cady, it’s Ms. Norbury. Are you okay dear?” She asks softly, feeling extremely bad for the new girl, she must’ve not made any friends. In homeroom, she had tried to speak with others, but was simply brushed off; it broke Ms. Norbury’s heart.

The door doesn’t open, but Cady replies. “I’m fine Ms. Norbury, I’m just eating lunch in here.” Her voice sounds weak and fragile as if it were about to break at any moment now. 

“Would you like to eat lunch with me? I know how it feels to be a new kid…” Ms. Norbury offers, remembering how she herself transferred from school to school very frequently when younger. She rarely made any friends, but made the most of her life. All her high school memories were with eating lunch with teachers - anything was better than snobby high schoolers. 

Cady slides her sandwich into the ziploc bag, contemplating her teacher’s offer. She already considered herself to be an outcast, eating with a teacher would make her reputation much worse than it was already. As she is about to politely decline her teacher’s offer, she remembers that there would be no friends to turn to. “Okay, I’ll be right out.” 

The bathroom stall door slowly opens, the timid redhead appearing before her homeroom teacher. Ms. Norbury notices tears forming in Cady’s eyes, so she quickly grabs a tissue and passes it to her student. The transfer student smiles weakly at Ms. Norbury while wiping her eyes, secretly grateful that she didn’t have to spend lunch time alone. Somehow, she felt more welcomed in Kenya by the vicious predators than she was at Northshore. Teenagers were _definitely_ the worst.

Ms. Norbury and Cady eventually make their way to the classroom, the transfer student seating herself in front of her teacher’s desk. Cady retrieves her sandwich and begins eating, feeling slightly better that she didn’t have to eat in a bathroom where _god knows what_ activities happen. Although new to American customs, she is _pretty sure_ that a boy shouldn’t have been walking out of the girls bathroom at the beginning of lunch with a dopey grin on his face. Recalling that moment makes her sick to the stomach.

“How’s your first day so far?” Ms. Norbury asks, trying to make conversation. She hopes that for someone who seems so sweet wasn’t having too bad of a day. She’s saddened to hear about Cady ranting about how she wasn’t accustomed to American school traditions and how everyone would laugh at her. “I’m sorry dear, I can assure you that it gets better.” The two share a kind smile, Cady’s mood slightly becoming better. “Until you find your group, you’re allowed to spend lunch in here for the meantime.”

The corners of Cady’s lips begin perking up. “Really? You wouldn’t mind?” When Ms. Norbury reassures her that she wouldn’t be a nuisance, the transfer student finally smiles after a long day of frowning and grimacing. When the bell rings, Cady gathers her materials and after asking directions for her next class, she waves goodbye to Ms. Norbury.

Her first day could’ve been a lot better, but it definitely was going to be okay.

-

When walking towards the bathroom yet again, Cady quickly remembers about Ms. Norbury’s classroom, a place that was becoming her second home. Turning on her heel, she weaves through the crowd of people rushing towards the lunch line, her eyes focused on the ground. She catches sight of the classroom and swiftly walks inside, finding Ms. Norbury is already indulging in her noodles. She greets Ms. Norbury, pulling up a chair to be seated directly in front of her desk. 

“Certainly made your mark in calculus today kid, even Kevin was impressed by you.” Ms. Norbury comments, remembering how effortlessly her student answered questions about a topic that was not taught. Cady’s heart is enlightened by her teacher’s comment and mutters a quiet thank you. “I saw you talking to Aaron, what’s up with that?” She asks teasingly, wondering if her student had a crush on him. 

Cady’s face quickly went red, her body slowly heating up. Aaron was definitely the third coolest person she had met at Northshore so far. In second, it was Ms. Norbury and in first place was her homeroom classmate she still hasn’t learned the name of. “No, it’s nothing like that.” She stutters, trying to figure out a way to steer their conversation into another topic. 

“Well, anyone in particular where it’s _like that_?” Ms. Norbury asks. Before Cady could answer, not like she was going to be truthful anyway, the classroom door opened and the transfer student began panicking once more when she noticed who entered. “Hi Janis, need something?”

Janis’s name began echoing throughout Cady’s head; her name is just as lovely as her appearance and demeanor. When she continues walking to the desk, Janis catches the sight of Cady and shoots a quick smile at her. The transfer student is snapped back to reality and instead of smiling back or waving, her immediate response was to do finger guns. Finger. Guns. Her father learned the small gesture through work and taught it to Cady their second day in America. Her face turns even a brighter shade of red when Janis stifles laughter which catches the attention of Ms. Norbury. 

“Hi Ms, I got the money for the field trip. Damian’s too, he has choir right now so he asked me to give it to you.” Janis greets, handing over two envelopes full of money. The eleventh grade class was going on a field trip to a museum, an annual trip for each junior class at Northshore. Three classes would go on their assigned days, Ms. Norbury’s class was first to go. Cady had already turned in her permission slip and money first thing in the morning. 

Ms. Norbury quickly glances over at Cady who is trying to avoid any sort of eye contact with Janis. She takes the envelope and slides the paper into a drawer of her desk. Her student turns around on her heel, but immediately turns right back around. “I’ll see ya later Caddy.” She didn’t wave, Janis did finger guns at Cady. 

“Bye!” Cady squeaks, her body finally relaxing after Janis left the classroom. After settling down, she perks her head up and finds Ms. Norbury with a suggestive smile slowly forming. Cady really hopes that the blush on her face has gone away by now. 

“Is it Janis?” Ms. Norbury asks. Cady needs no context for that question, she understands quite well what her teacher is referring to. When the redhead nods, the teacher begins clapping excitedly, happy to learn that her favorite student has taken interest in another one of her favorite students. “That is really adorable Cady. Hope it works out for you.” 

The transfer student is relieved to see that Ms. Norbury didn’t even bat an eye when her crush was revealed to be a girl. Well, Cady wasn’t that shocked after witnessing the tall flamboyant boy, who she assumes to be Damian, being cheered on by Ms. Norbury for singing an unfamiliar pop song in homeroom this morning. When the bell rings, Cady gathers her belongings and leaves the classroom.

The teacher slowly smirks when she finds a way to be productive during her free periods.

-

Cady wasn’t expecting people to be lined up against the walls of Ms. Norbury’s classroom when she entered homeroom. She also wasn’t expecting the desks to be rearranged into pairs aligned in rows. She awkwardly shifts towards the nearest empty space of the line, her eyes immediately latching onto Janis. By her body language and facial expressions, she appears to be a part of a very embarrassing conversation with Damian, her face bright red; Cady wonders what they’re speaking about. 

“Okay everyone, I have decided to change things up a bit. Go to your assigned seat after I call everyone’s names.” Ms. Norbury announces, going down the seating chart list. 

Row after row, Cady is anticipating to hear her name being called. First row, no luck. Second row, no luck. Third row, no luck. It didn’t hit Cady to realize the purpose of this sudden seating arrangement when it was only Janis and Cady standing against the walls. “Finally, Cady and Janis are in that corner there.” 

As Janis attempts to walk to her desk in a calm reserved manner, Damian is found to be raising his eyebrows suggestively at his best friend. If looks could kill, Damian and Ms. Norbury both would be dead due to Cady and Janis’s death glares. Walking over to their desks, Janis shoots finger guns at Cady; the redhead does the same, taking note that Janis remembers their little interaction from the other day. After settling into their seats, Cady’s leg begins bouncing rapidly while Janis continues to stare down Damian. The transfer student was occupied within her own mind that she didn’t notice Janis’s friends forming a heart around the two. 

“I thought I’d change the room a bit so you guys can get to know each other a bit more. Spend the rest of this period talking with your new partner!” Ms. Norbury announces, her eyes remaining around Cady’s general direction. Once the announcement was over, she sat down at her desk, feeling proud of her matchmaking idea.

While everyone begins a conversation with one another, Janis and Cady are both sitting still, patiently waiting for the other to begin a conversation. Before Cady could start one, she feels a hand rest on top of her leg that’s bouncing. At that moment, Cady was definitely sure she was going to implode. “You okay? You seem really nervous.” Janis asks gently, smiling when she sees Cady’s leg slowly stop bouncing in place.

Once her hand was removed from Cady’s leg, the transfer student desperately wants Janis to make some sort of physical contact with her again. “I’m fine, just don’t really know how to talk to people I guess? I mean, I tried my first day and it didn’t really work. I sort of ate lunch in the bathroom before Ms. Norbury found me there.” Cady shuts her mouth right away when she realizes that she was beginning to ramble on.

Janis lets out a small chuckle, a noise Cady wants to hear on repeat. “You’re fine, it was kind of cute to see you say all that.” The transfer student couldn’t form words, Janis had just called her _cute._ “So that’s why I saw you in there the other day. Honestly, it's pretty cool that you’re making friends with a teacher.”

“You don’t think that’s weird?” Everyone else would’ve probably teased or belittled Cady for hanging out with Ms. Norbury. Instead, Janis called hanging out a teacher _cool._

“Yeah! You get to know all the inside info, get to hear about other teachers…” She purses her lips, figuring out another reason why having a teacher friend is actually pretty nice. Cady’s eyes couldn’t help, but flicker down to her mouth region. “Getting a teacher on your good side is pretty nice overall.” She finishes, her body slowly shifting to face Cady; the transfer student mirrors Janis’s body language.

“That’s true. So far she’s just been learning about me though. Maybe I’ll learn more information and bring it back to you.” Cady jokes, responding to Janis’s comments slowly becoming easier as the time passes.

“My little spy, I like that.” Janis says, winking at her new friend. Cady replays that moment in her head. She also makes note of the use of the word _my._ “Can Damian and I drop by sometime? Actually, all the time, he’s been wanting to use his speaker to blast songs and I’ve been wanting to get to know you for some time…” Janis asks. “Oh yeah, Damian is that guy over there.” Janis points as her friend who was already staring in their direction. He blows a kiss towards Cady who simply waves back. 

"Sounds grool!" The redhead says confidently. Her confidence lowers when she realizes the fake word that came out of her mouth. "I meant to say great, but then I started saying cool..." She explains.

Janis chuckles at Cady's new word. "I'm sure it'll be grool." The redhead felt more comfortable when her new friend didn't tease her for a small mistake, she liked how Janis hasn't made fun of her at all compared to other Northshore juniors. "I have a feeling we’re gonna be great friends, Caddy. We already got that finger gun greeting down.” Janis contentedly sighs, casually placing an arm on the back of Cady’s chair.

She tries her best not to freak out. “Thanks! It’s Cady though.” 

“Yeah, I’m gonna call you Caddy.” 

Their conversation continues even after the bell rang. Janis found out more about Cady’s life in Kenya and how homeschooling was for her. Cady discovered that Janis was really interested in art and that she just so happened to be gay; the transfer student definitely saves that information in her mind. Janis also owns a pet dog while Cady owns a stuffed lion, something to remind her of a past lion cub that the redhead took care of. The duo was joined by Damian who slings his arms around the shoulders of Janis and his new friend Cady. Before leaving, the transfer student smiles at Ms. Norbury, silently thanking her for the seating arrangements. School was beginning to become a lot more enjoyable. 

-

Cady, Damian, and Janis are seated in their homeroom teacher’s classroom on a couch that Ms. Norbury placed in front of the room shoved into the corner. After weeks of the trio pleading and begging, she eventually gave in and brought a small couch in for the friend group to sit on. There’s a small foldable table placed in front of the couch where the trio keeps their lunch on. Damian and Janis are seated on both ends of the couch while Cady is stuck in the middle. Ms. Norbury notices Janis’s arm wrapping around Cady’s waist, the latter of the two basically snuggling into her friend’s side. Meanwhile, Damian is sitting cross-legged, scrolling through his playlist. As of right now, Madonna is playing softly in the background.

“Excited for the field trip Cady?” Ms. Norbury says, twirling her pasta around a fork.

Janis throws a french fry into Cady’s mouth. “Yep! My parents said I’ll probably enjoy it.”  
  
Damian finally picks out a playlist after a couple of minutes. “Tell me why we have to be here at such an ungodly hour Norbury. I need sleep.”

She closes her food container and gently places it down onto the floor. “Traffic Damian. At least you didn’t have the plan the whole trip out. None of the other junior teachers helped…”

Janis pulls in Cady closer after hearing the secret, the redhead’s face shot bright red. “Do tell staff secrets Ms, we’d be happy to listen.” She crosses her long legs in front of her and playfully nudges Cady’s knee with her own. 

Ms. Norbury has enough of their small flirting and stands up. “I will, but I need to talk to Damian about…” She quickly looks around the room and spots the show choir poster for an upcoming performance later this month. “Show choir, I will be right back.” 

Damian stands up, waving goodbye to his friends. Cady and Janis, in the classroom by themselves, continue talking casually. There is not a moment where Cady considers moving herself to the free space that was occupied by Damian, she would much rather prefer to stay in Janis’s arms.  
  
“Is there something going on between Janis and Cady? Why are they so affectionate?” Ms. Norbury asks quietly, not wanting passerby students to hear their conversation. Sometimes teenagers are brutal and close-minded, she didn’t want people to harass the girls about whatever their relationship may be. After weeks of seeing them frequently hold hands underneath the table during homeroom, she needed answers.

Damian lets out a huff and leans against the wall. “Nothing, just unbearable tension. After you set the two up a couple weeks ago, they’re inseparable.” He pauses. “Is this illegal to talk about with you? You are a teacher…”

Ms. Norbury waves a hand in dismissal. “It might be slightly unprofessional, but I want to see my students happy and they look so happy together. After Cady met you two, I’ve seen her smile so much more now.”

He places a hand over his heart, extremely touched by his teacher’s comment. “My beloved Caddy, how I love her.” Damian pauses for a moment, wondering what they should do about the two lovebirds. “Ah, how about you assign partners for tomorrow’s field trip. Spend the first couple hours at the museum with your partner for a small dumb assignment and then let us hang out with anyone after.” He suggests, reminding himself to pat himself on the back for that incredible idea.

“Brilliant! You should be in my calculus class, you seem so smart Damian.”

He pretends to flip his hair. “I know I should.”

They walk back inside the classroom, only to find Cady and Janis both scrolling through something on the other’s phone. Their faces are extremely close to one another’s that one might as well kiss the other on the cheek. Damian picks up Cady’s leg that has been extended onto the couch and throws it back onto the floor, claiming back his spot The redhead lets out a small scoff, pretending to be offended and then sticks her tongue out at Damian. He retaliates back and does the same while leaning over to see what’s on their phone. Meanwhile, Ms. Norbury opens her laptop and begins writing a small assignment for her class to do. Tomorrow was going to be _fun._

-

Janis slings her small messenger back over her shoulder while exiting her father’s car. The sun had scarcely touched the horizon and she wanted to crawl back in bed underneath her warm covers. She swings the door of the main entrance open, being blinded by the blaring white lights within the hallway. Like something out of a horror film, the hallway was deserted, it was just Janis. The artist eventually arrives at Ms. Norbury’s classroom where there were already classmates waiting inside. She scurries her way to the back of the classroom and her heart nearly stops at the sight of Cady.

The transfer student is wearing a slightly big flannel, most likely an article clothing of her dad’s. When the redhead catches sight of her friend, she shoots finger guns at her while a smile begins forming on her face. Something about tired Cady made Janis’s heart flutter every second. Her heart begins pounding and it's unbearable.

She takes a seat on her desk, using the chair to prop her legs up. Janis smiles at Cady who is intrigued by the small rainbow keychain attached to her messenger bag. After a couple of moments, Damian arrives and pats the two on the head as a greeting. For someone who loves to get their beauty sleep, he’s extremely energized and almost seems to be anticipating something; Janis is unable to put her finger on it.

“Okay, bear with me here, the teachers have decided to give you all an assignment and assigned partners for this field trip. Spend two hours with them and then go off doing whatever y’all do.” Ms. Norbury announces, ignoring the large amount of groans emitting from her tired juniors. “Yeah yeah, let me tell you the partners now.”

Cady’s body and mind are suddenly fueled with energy when Ms. Norbury reads off the first set of partners. Of _freakin’_ course, she assigned Cady and Janis to be partners on the field trip. Instead of showing her nerves, she simply cheers and sits herself up on the desk next to Janis. Without hesitation, she wraps an arm around Cady’s shoulders and pulls her close. Damian is assigned with Glen Coco, someone in class who rarely speaks, but is genuinely a nice person. The assignments are passed out, the only words on the paper being “What moment did you enjoy with your partner?” 

Sooner or later, the buses arrive and Damian snaps a quick photo of his friends sleeping on the bus ride there. Cady’s head is resting on the shoulder of Janis while the other is gently leaning on her head. Their hands are interlaced with one another and they both appear to be so peaceful while napping. After taking the photo, he spots Ms. Norbury looking in his direction. They both give one another a thumbs-up; so far, their plan was working. 

-

Cady stretches her body out after the long bus ride, wrapping the flannel around her waist since the weather was a bit humid. Janis lets out a huge groan since she was finally able to extend her long legs after being crammed in a tiny bus - with Cady being there, the bus ride was a bit more bearable. Ms. Norbury, after giving some rules and a time and place to meet for lunch, sets her students free. Cady and Janis approach Damian and his partner, intending to spend the museum trip with them. They were left shocked when Damian pushed his partner into the museum, slightly speed-walking inside. The two disappear out of Cady and Janis’s line of sight, leaving the two alone.

Janis holds out her hand for Cady, if anyone else were to see them, she would claim that it's to prevent her friend from getting lost. “What do you wanna see first?” She views the map of the museum with her free hand. The redhead peeks over at the map and notices the words _numbers in nature,_ two of her favorite things. Janis tilts her head to see what Cady was looking at and her breath hitches. Something about being near Cady’s face makes her extremely nervous. Ignoring her sudden urge to kiss Cady, she follows her line of sight and notices the mirror maze exhibit. She wasn’t a big fan of math, but would do anything for Cady. “Let’s go!” 

After asking a couple of people for directions, they find themselves in a mirror maze and Janis couldn’t help but notice Cady’s instant excitement when entering the maze. Her body was filled with excitement and if Cady were a balloon, she would definitely pop. There’s not one second where their hands let go of one another. It almost felt like a date except there’s a lack of kissing. Yet the amount of looks secretly exchanged between the two, that definitely makes up for the kissing part of a date. 

Janis fishes her phone out of her pocket, checking the time quickly. There’s an hour left of partnerwork and a small part of her wishes that there was more time spent with her partner. Cady had basically dragged Janis to nearly every exhibit she could lay her eyes on and the two had a blast. The museum had exhibits suited for their interests. For Cady, there was the math-related mirror maze and for Janis, there were plenty of displays of art hanging around in the museum. Both of the girls got an opportunity to teach the other on their favorite subjects while the other person admired their enthusiasm about the topic being spoken about. Trying to figure out how to spend the last hour, Janis finds an information pamphlet about a theater. Looking at the time slots, she realizes a small film about animals would be airing very soon, so she starts bolting into the direction of the theater while holding Cady’s hand.

By the time they arrive, people are already piling in. Cady and Janis find themselves seated in the back row, placing themselves in the corner where no one would really see them. The lights slightly dim and once again, their hands find each other and begin to interlace. When Janis hears Cady release a content sigh, she takes this chance to glance over at her friend. She was perfect in every way imaginable. Cady was insanely attractive and incredibly loving, the redhead was shameless when it came to affection. Around her, Janis felt safe, welcomed, and felt truest to herself. Even Cady’s voice sounds cute, especially when gushing over a topic she was heavily invested in. 

Janis’s little world with Cady starts strengthening when the redhead looks over at her. The sound of the movie begins to stray away from their ears and Janis felt like the pounding of her heart was extremely loud. “Hi there.” Janis whispers, not wanting to disturb the other people within the theater.

“Hi.” Cady replies, using the same hushed tone in her voice. Janis smelt of pressed flowers and looked as beautiful as the night sky in Kenya. Her palms begin to sweat when Janis scoots herself closer to Cady, wanting to be as close to her as possible.

“You having a good time so far?” She asks. When Cady nods, Janis tugs at her bottom lip while contemplating a thought. She’s overwhelmed by Cady’s presence and her feelings for Cady, the tension could no longer be ignored. “Can I tell you something?” 

“Anything.” Cady says sincerely, her gaze softening. 

The artist takes a deep breath and slowly exhales, becoming comforted when the redhead starts rubbing circles on the back of her hand with her thumb. “I like you. Like a lot. More than a friend.” She utters, still trying to keep the volume of her voice low.

Cady’s breath hitches and her mind begins replaying the last couple of seconds in her head. Janis likes her back, her crush likes her back. For once in her life, Cady Heron wasn’t stupid with love, she finally found someone who reciprocates her feelings. The redhead realizes she’s been quiet for too long when noticing the immense regret starting to form on Janis’s face. “Janis… I like you too.” She pauses for a bit. “More than a friend.”

After being hushed by a parent in the row in front of them, the couple decides to keep shut for the remainder of the film. Although they couldn’t talk, the small exchanges of affectionate smiles and small kisses pressed onto the other’s knuckles was just enough for the two. 

When the film was over, Janis and Cady found themselves tucked away in a corner of the museum near the bathrooms, trying to avoid as many people to have a certain discussion. Cady leans against the wall while Janis stands in front of her, both of them holding hands.

“So… what you said in the theater there, is it true?” When Cady nods enthusiastically, that’s all Janis needs to see. “Kind of glad Ms. Norbury did this… Damian always thought she was setting us up.”

Cady chuckles softly, her eyes occasionally flickering down to Janis’s lips. “She was… my crush on you was kind of the first thing she knew about me.” When she slightly tilts her head, the redhead feels the need to explain. “When you walked in to give money and I completely freaked out, that’s when she realized.” 

Janis remembers how nervous Cady was when she waltzed into the room with the field trip money. Now here they are, confessing their crushes for one another. “We have to thank her then I guess.” They sit in silence for a bit and it becomes unbearable. “Is it okay if I uh, kissed you?” 

There’s zero hesitation with Cady’s reply. “Yes.”

Janis slowly leans in and Cady closes the gap between their faces, their teeth clumsily knocking against each other’s when they smile. Janis’s arms find themselves wrapped around the redhead’s waist while Cady’s arms drift up to wrap themselves around Janis’s neck. Just as lovely as her name, appearance, and personality, Janis was a wonderful kisser. When they pull away breathless, Cady takes a look at the time and decides to text Damian where to meet since their two hours have been up. On another note, Cady and Janis both knew what to write down on their assignment that Ms. Norbury definitely used as an excuse to get the two closer together.

Before leaving to meet Damian, the redhead needs to ask Janis something. “So, are we dating now?”

“Yes… yes we are.” She says while smiling softly.

Janis plants a small kiss on her girlfriend’s forehead and takes her hand, the feeling slightly different now that the two had become official. The first thing that Damian notices is the small smiles forever painted on their faces and the change in demeanor from Janis. Examining a bit closer, he notices Cady’s thumb tracing small circles on the back of Janis’s hands and it suddenly clicks. The two finally got together. 

“This is the best field trip ever. Now let’s go find Ms. Norbury, she’s going to be so happy to learn this.” The trio begins walking towards the cafe where their teacher would be to announce spectacular news. Just to think that a couple weeks ago, Cady was eating alone in Ms. Norbury’s classroom pining over Janis silently is insane. School was no longer going to be dreadful. With Damian, Ms. Norbury and her _girlfriend_ Janis - she loved saying that word - by her side, Cady felt unstoppable.


	7. relearn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While tutoring Janis, the Herons receive a call from a friend from Kenya. Unfortunately, Cady has forgotten her Swahili.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the cut song "Bossed Up," there's a line where Cady says "My friends are kinda squealy, I've forgotten my Swahili." So this is based off of that :)  
> Hope you enjoy!

Janis is furiously scribbling mathematical functions that she considers nonsense, the only barrier preventing her temper from being lost is Cady’s presence. Her girlfriend’s arm is wrapped tightly around her waist while explaining the meaning behind those math terms. Although the two have been studying for Janis’s upcoming calculus test for a couple of hours now, the artist is having difficulties wrapping her mind around derivatives of inverse functions. Janis is incredibly smart and her grades are considered above average by many teachers. However, there’s always that  _ one  _ day where nothing seems to make sense. Fortunately, her lovely girlfriend is extremely patient and is being one of the best tutors that Janis has ever had. 

“There you go! You’re starting to get the hang of it now.” Cady cheers, her arm slightly squeezing against Janis’s waist while pressing a small kiss against her girlfriend’s cheek. 

A single compliment from Cady raised Janis’s confidence about the math topic greatly. She moves onto the next problem, her grip on the pencil relaxing a tiny bit. While solving for the derivative, she accidentally makes a small mistake. Before Cady could say anything, Janis simply erases her old work, replacing the mistake with a correct solution. Her heart rate picks up when she feels Cady’s lips press against her cheek once more. 

“Alright, now you have one more problem. At this rate, you’re gonna get a 100 on this test.” The redhead confidently says, enjoying how Janis lacks hesitation when solving these types of problems now after two hours of studying. Her pencil no longer stops in between steps, the numbers and math equations flow out seamlessly. 

While writing down the next problem, a knock on the door makes Cady’s arm retract from Janis’s waist faster than ever. The door opens and Mrs. Heron is standing there with a suggestive smile on her face. “Hi girls, hope you’re doing well.” She waves a phone at Cady. “Zawadi is calling in a few, be downstairs in 5. Janis can say hi too!”

After finishing the problem, Janis lets out a snicker at how stiff her girlfriend is. Every time her parents stroll into the room, Cady behaves like a statue. “I’m sure she doesn’t know, don’t worry.” She reassures her girlfriend who wasn’t quite ready to inform her parents about their relationship status. “Who’s Zawadi? Friend from Kenya?” Janis asks, standing from the desk chair to stretch; Cady’s chair definitely wasn’t meant for tall folk like her.

“Yeah! Well, he was like this kid my parents babysat sometimes. I didn’t talk to him much, but my parents did.” The redhead clarifies, shuffling the papers from their study session into a neat pile. She closes the textbook and stores it underneath her table. “We weren’t really friends, but I knew him and he knew me.”

“You got any pictures of him?” Janis asks, already glancing around the room, looking out for a framed picture with Cady and Zawadi. Cady nods and grabs her girlfriend’s wrist, dragging her out to the hallway. She takes a couple steps down the stairway and pauses halfway down, pointing at a picture. 

Janis smiles when she immediately recognizes her girlfriend. In the photo, Cady’s mother has her daughter resting on her lap while the father has Zawadi resting on his. They’re all smiling, staring directly towards the camera. Zawadi had a bright smile and so did Cady, both of the young children representing the pure innocence of childhood; the photo was extremely adorable. “You kind of look like Pippy Longstocking here Cady.” Janis comments when noticing Cady’s pigtails. When she notices her girlfriend appeared to be unfamiliar with the name, she takes out her smartphone and searches for an image of the character. 

Cady lets out a small laugh. “Oh my god I really did look like that.” She lets out a small sigh. “Wow, I used to be cute.”

They continue walking down the stairs towards the living room where Cady’s parents were waiting for their arrival. “You still are.” Janis adds, softly smiling at the small blush that appeared on the redhead’s face because of the compliment. 

When Cady and Janis arrive, the Herons are already on the phone with Zawadi. They’re speaking in Swahili since that is the young man’s first language. The redhead and artist take a seat on the couch, hoping that Cady’s parents wouldn’t notice how close they were despite the large amount of empty space available. After a couple of moments, the phone gets put on speaker and is passed to Cady. The redhead raises the volume of the smartphone a tiny bit and her mouth completely goes dry when Zawadi greets her.

Janis stares at her girlfriend anticipatingly, excited to hear Cady speak Swahili once again since the only time was when she greeted Rachel in Swahili her first day of school. She recognizes the phrase Zawadi said, it was the same words Cady had said to Rachel. Yet, there were no words coming out of Cady’s partially open mouth. For a couple of moments, she stammered and let out a couple of “uhms,” but no actual words were formed. When Zawadi speaks again, Cady pushes the phone into her mother’s hands and bolts upstairs without any warning. Janis chases her girlfriend after excusing herself from the awkward phone conversation.

She opens the door of Cady’s bedroom and finds her collapsed face-first on her bed. If anyone were to walk in, they would assume the redhead had fainted. 

“Hey, what’s wrong? You sort of just left without saying anything.” Janis asks gently, taking a seat next to Cady’s head. The redhead shifts herself, resting her head onto Janis’s lap. To calm her nerves, the artist runs her hands through Cady’s strawberry blonde hair. 

“Remember my plastic phase?” She finally says, remembering how junior year was quite an interesting time. “I completely forgot my Swahili and basically my entire childhood.” Cady groans, wanting to smack herself for completely disregarding an important part of her life. How could she forget the beautiful language she used to be so fluent in? “God I was so stupid…”

Janis notices Cady’s eyes watering gently pulls her girlfriend up, her hands resting on her waist. “Caddy, you didn’t lose your ability to speak Swahili completely. Just like you didn’t lose yourself after the whole spring fling. You recognized your mistake and became a better person. And that was your first time around American teenagers, don’t blame yourself too hard.” She tugs her girlfriend closer for a hug, making Cady release a content sigh; Janis gave the best hugs. “All you need is review, that's all.” 

“He’s probably so confused that I didn’t even say hi… I couldn’t even repeat what he said.” Cady grumbles, burying her face deeper into the crook of Janis’s neck. 

The artist plants a small kiss on her girlfriend’s head, hugging her a bit tighter. “I think he won’t mind.” Janis’s eyes roam around the room and she catches sight of the math textbook; if she were in a cartoon, a light bulb would appear on top of her head. “What if we try to learn Swahili together? It’ll be fun.” She suggests, gently pulling away from Cady with her hands still resting on her waist.

Cady wipes her tears away with the fabric of her shirt, smiling at the idea of learning a language with her girlfriend. “I’d like that…” She says quietly. 

Janis’s hands roam to cup her girlfriend’s face and leans in for a quick kiss to cheer up Cady.

“Girls Zawa-” Mrs. Heron notices her daughter and her “friend” quickly pull away from a kiss, their bodies separating swiftly after she opens the door. She gently smiles and steps out into the hallway. “Zawadi will call again in a few weeks, he says hi to you two.” Before leaving she peeks her head in, laughing at how the two girls are stiff in place. “Keep this door open please.”

After hearing her footsteps drift away, Cady and Janis both look at each other with flustered expressions. While the latter of the two lets out laughter, the other is groaning loudly, feeling extremely embarrassed. Cady stands up and walks over to her desk, opening the laptop to search for online videos about speaking Swahili. Janis follows and pulls out another chair. When she sits down, she presses a small kiss on Cady’s temple.

“Janis come on.” She pouts, nervous that her mother or father will walk in again. 

Janis, the tease she is, simply leans in and presses a kiss on Cady’s lips to wash that pout away. She rolls her eyes, playfully swatting at her girlfriend. Eventually, they find their hands interlacing with one another while they scroll through Google pages and Youtube videos of learning Swahili. 

Somewhere in the back of Cady’s mind is the beautiful language that she repressed during her Plastic Phase. With her girlfriend beside her, relearning a language should be easy. 


	8. anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janis has anger issues and Cady figures out a way to help her after an angry outburst.
> 
> TW: mention of the d-word

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is me projecting myself onto Janis. I struggle with anger issues and a short temper, so I found it so relieving after writing this piece. Hope you enjoy it :)

It’s a Sunday evening and Janis found herself spiraling into another fit of rage while finishing her homework before a date with Cady. She was accustomed to her random bursts of anger, it was one of the consequences from Regina’s pool party incident. Having to face a permanently carved derogatory term whenever she retrieved materials from her locker made Janis’s blood boil and skin crawl. Even after retrieving her school supplies from the locker at the end of middle school, the word simply was painted over, the indent of _dyke_ forever making its mark. Rather than releasing her anger, the young girl preferred to repress it. Humiliation, stress, and sadness piled on top of her anger, making Janis more prone to having random outbursts of rage during any time of day. Although art therapy has assisted the artist with coping with her bullying experience, Janis still has issues with controlling her temper.

Sometimes the fits of rage creep up her spine out of the blue, her thoughts becoming a venomous terrain that fueled a burning rage within her. No matter how hard Janis would try, her thoughts would ultimately thrash about in her head, creating problems that weren’t existing in the first place. In this case, her thoughts managed to weave together a small web of “why” questions that made Janis’s body tremble with rage.

_Why couldn’t she understand her english homework? Why couldn’t she read the simplest paragraph on Earth and answer questions about it? Why does she have to feel compelled to answer all of these questions perfectly? Why was she even getting mad in the first place? Why does she always get irritated over the simplest of things? Why couldn’t she control her temper?_

She followed breathing tips that intended to help ease the building anger within her - taking four seconds to inhale and eight seconds to exhale. Her breathing became sporadic as her mind continued to flood with endless amounts of questions that Janis couldn’t form an answer to. The artist emerges from her chair abruptly while her chest begins heaving from her inconsistent breathing, fighting against the desperate urge to kick, scream, punch, or destroy the nearest object closest to her. Janis’s head began throbbing as she continued holding back her intense fury, her anger only becoming worse when she calls herself _idiotic to have a rage fit over English homework._

Janis’s anger became worse when the thoughts slowly strayed away from English homework, eventually dwelling onto more personal issues that she struggles with.

_Why do you always screw up everything? Why can’t you control your temper like Damian or Cady? Why do you always end up having a stupid fit of rage over something stupid? Why do you always end up in a state of anger? Do you want to disappoint your parents? Why isn’t art therapy working? Why? Why? Why?_

Similar to a volcanic eruption, Janis finally lost the strenuous battle to her temper once again. Whenever the young artist loses her temper, somehow she finds herself in autopilot mode, going through the actions she typically does whenever her anger gets out of hand. She goes through the motions swiftly before her mind registers the actions her body has done. Before Janis knew it, her throat felt hoarse from intense screaming and began experiencing an immense pain in her right hand. 

Janis blinks once and is snapped back into reality, facing the aftermath of her temper. Her hand is wedged into a hole its created within her door, the pain slowly rising due to splinters and the sudden impact of the hard wooden door against her fragile bones. She lets out a small wince of pain while pulling her hand out, ignoring the tears rolling down her face due to her repressed anger. The young artist stares at her trembling hand that had a couple of wooden splinters poking out of it and feels the immediate disappointment when realizing what she has done.

After going through her stages of rage, Janis could only feel disappointment and dread afterwards. She felt completely _stupid_ for getting angry, believing that she had no reason to be furious in the first place. Janis felt guilty of something, but was never quite sure what she felt guilty about. Nevertheless, she opens her bedroom and door and walks into the bathroom to wash her beaten-up hand. Just as she touches the doorknob of the bathroom, there’s a knock on the front door from downstairs. She curses under her breath and remembers the date with Cady she forgot about during her fit of rage. Janis slides her hand within the pocket of her jacket and walks downstairs.

“Hi Janis!” The redhead greets, leaning up to press a kiss against her girlfriend’s lips; something about Cady always made Janis find peace with herself. Eventually, that disappointment and guilt from her fit of rage began disappearing when her lips met her girlfriend’s. 

Janis mutters a small hello and moves aside to let Cady in, grateful that her parents would be returning home very late at night. When Janis looks back at her girlfriend, she notices Cady’s attention is fixated on Janis’s jacket pocket. “I’m fine.” She says, answering a question that hasn’t been asked.

Cady’s eyebrows furrow and she holds out her hand to grab at Janis’s, gently pulling it out of her pocket. Cady hisses in proxy when she notices the splinters coming off her hand accompanied by slight bruising. “What happened?” She asks, immediately rushing them into the downstairs bathroom. 

“Does it matter?” Janis groans, hopping herself onto the bathroom counter next to the sink. She slightly winces when Cady begins plucking the splinters out with tweezers. When Janis notices the look of seriousness plastered onto her girlfriend’s face, she sighs and begins explaining. “I just lost my temper because I couldn’t do my english homework. Ended up screaming and punching a hole in my door…”

She’s surprised when she doesn’t hear Cady scoff or laugh at Janis’s reason for getting extremely angry. Instead the redhead runs her girlfriend’s hand under water, gently cleansing the small wounds from the splinters. “Was it really about the english homework?” Cady finally asks while gently patting Janis’s hand dry.

The artist could feel tears returning to her eyes once again, that was a question she never knew the answer to. “I don’t- I don’t know. I never know why I get so angry and it’s so stupid!” Janis shouts in frustration, allowing the tears to fall onto her cheeks; there would be no use to contain her anger after what just happened. “I never know why I get these fits of rage, I could literally just be painting and next thing I know I’m slamming my canvas onto the floor out of frustration.” Cady gently presses her lips to Janis’s bruised knuckles while she continues venting. “I have no reason to get mad so why do I? It never makes sense and I always end up fucking up and losing my temper over the simplest of things… I’m such a fucking idiot.” She bellows out, her voice occasionally cracking from the crying.

“Come here…” Cady utters softly while dragging her girlfriend off the bathroom counter. She wraps her arms around Janis’s waist and allows her to sob onto her sweater as she rubs her hands up and down Janis’s back. When her girlfriend’s sobbing begins dying down, Cady starts speaking. “You’re _not_ an idiot Janis, trust me. Considering that you’ve gone through bullying for majority of your life, your anger is understandable. Sure you may not cope with it in the healthiest of ways, but I promise you that you aren’t stupid for losing your temper over small things.” 

When Janis’s breathing evens out, she finds the ability to speak. “I’m sorry… I know we were supposed to go on a date tonight.” She gently pulls away and smiles when Cady grabs her hand to press her lips against it.

“We will but it’ll be a change of plans.” She grabs Janis’s wrist and escorts her girlfriend to the car, setting directions for a location unknown to Janis. 

Just yesterday, they were planning on window shopping and catching a movie afterwards. Now, Cady was driving her car up a mountain that overlooks the city of Chicago, similar to one of those “makeout point” mountains in teenager romcoms. They arrive at the peak of the mountain where a wooden fence wraps around the edges to prevent any accidents from happening. The couple exits out of their car and takes a small seat on a nearby bench, admiring the city lights that twinkled below them. 

Although there were many lights down below, Cady and Janis admired the stars that were visible within the sky; stargazing was a favorite activity to do. The redhead would tell stories about the endless nights where she stayed up past midnight in Kenya, staring at the night sky while a gentle cool breeze would brush against her face. She wasn’t on the look for constellations, planets, or extraterrestrial life, Cady simply wanted to admire the beautiful night sky with little shimmers of light scattered across the vast space. It would remind her that she wasn’t alone in Kenya, there were more people beyond that gorgeous night sky. These stories were great for relaxing Janis, especially right now.

“Thank you for taking me up here…” Janis mutters. She’s laid out across the bench with her head in Cady’s lap, feeling her leftover anger slowly sizzle out while her girlfriend runs her fingers through her dyed hair. 

She leans down to press a small kiss on Janis’s forehead. “Of course.” Cady pauses for a bit. “There’s another thing I wanted us to do.” Janis lifts herself up and stares at her girlfriend in confusion, wondering what else they were going to do up in this mountain. The redhead stands up and goes near the edge of the cliff, leaning against the tall fence. She turns back around to look at Janis, beckoning her to stand next to her. “Wanna know the best way to relieve some steam?” 

“What is it?” She asks, examining her bruised hand; it’s probably going to take a couple of weeks to heal. 

“Screaming.” Cady answers, turning her head to face Janis. “C’mon, no one will hear us. We can leave right after and probably get you a new door…” She chuckles, remembering how Janis left a hole within her door. 

Janis hesitates, afraid of being caught by some security guard or alerting a nearby mountain lion. Just when she was about to decline Cady’s offer, she realizes how all of her random outbursts of anger have been from suppressing her feelings, bottling them all up until one tiny thing decides to blow the top off of her rage. “Yeah. Yeah! Let’s do it.” 

Cady smiles and begins counting down on her fingers starting from three. Once that final fingers goes down, both girls begin screaming into the vast space around them, releasing all the stress and rage that has been piling on for so many years. Even if their throats may be hoarse afterwards, the screaming actually felt nice to do. There was no one there to hear them scream, they were allowed to release all the frustration into the air, finally letting go of their previous concerns and worries. Janis would finally be able to feel relaxed and serene all thanks to her wonderful girlfriend.

Once they are finished, Janis lets out a small chuckle, feeling as if a weight has been pulled away from her chest. She turns to Cady and pulls her in for an embrace, probably thanking her a thousand times before letting go. Janis gently pushes Cady back and tips her chin up with a finger, planting a soft kiss on her lips. 

“I love you so much.” She says, pulling her back in for one more hug. Janis would be forever grateful for this small moment of vulnerability shared with her girlfriend.

Cady squeezes a bit tighter. “I love you too…” They quickly kiss once again and enter the car. 

“Alright… let’s go buy me a new door before my parents come home!”


	9. christmas eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janis makes a move on Christmas Eve during a small party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know its July, but seeing how 2020 is going so far, I'm going to pretend its Christmas :)

Damian weaved silver tinsel through the gaps of his stair railings while singing along with Frank Sinatra Christmas music - his voice being loud enough to hear at any location of his house. The young man was holding a Christmas party with a couple of friends: the Ex-Plastics, Janis, and lovable Cady who was thrilled to celebrate Christmas properly. Well, Christmas Eve at least, actual Christmas would be spent with their families only. Compared to last year, there would be no candy gram missions or tricking people into ruining someone’s life, this Christmas would be about spending time with friends and family. 

After securing the tinsel at the bottom of the stairwell, he twirls around and notices Janis hanging ornaments on the tree while humming along to Sinatra. Damian approaches his best friend, admiring the tree that was beautifully decorated. He leans down to retrieve some ornaments himself and begins decorating the tree alongside his friend. 

“Remind me again why your girlfriend isn’t here.” Damian says, carefully placing the ornament onto the tree branch. When turning his head to make eye contact with Janis, the first thing he notices is the bright blush appearing on her face.

“First of all, she’s  _ not  _ my girlfriend.” Janis retorts, picking off a small pine needle from the tree and throwing it at Damian. He dodges and sticks his tongue out at her. “Second of all, she said that her family was picking out a tree last minute, she’ll be here tonight.” 

Janis and Damian offered to decorate the house themselves for the small Christmas party. Well, Janis was essentially forced to help decorate when she would’ve preferred to remain at home under her large comforter in bed while Damian  _ pleaded  _ for her assistance. The artist slowly became grateful that she decided to help decorate, spending time with Damian was one of her favorite activities. 

“Oh please, I know you have a crush on dear Caddy.” He scoffs while walking towards the coffee table to snatch snickerdoodles that his mother baked for the two. Walking back towards the tree, Janis grabs the remaining cookie in her friend’s hand and gulps it down in one bite. “I see how you two cuddle with each other during our movie nights.”

Damian recalls the countless amount of times Janis and Cady have been caught cuddling under the blanket during their movie nights. He remembers Janis protectively wrapping her arms around Cady’s waist while the latter snuggles in her side, occasionally whispering what Damian assumes to be sweet nothings into her ear. 

Janis places the last ornament on the tree and swipes through Damian’s Christmas music playlist, determining what song should be played. “Shut up, you know we’re just really affectionate.” She objects, hoping that Damian would leave the subject alone.

He rolls his eyes, plopping himself onto the couch next to his best friend. “Honey even if you two are all lovey-dovey-” Janis whacks him on the shoulder. “Ow- the way you two stare at each other sometimes is  _ really  _ lovingly. I swear that Caddy’s pupils somehow morph into hearts.” 

“That’s physically impossible…” She pauses for a bit, picking apart a snickerdoodle and popping the small pieces in her mouth. “Besides, she’s straight and wouldn’t like me back.” Janis sighs, remembering how Cady only spoke about  _ Aaron this, Aaron that  _ before their parting; it was a mutual breakup, the two decided a long-distance relationship wouldn’t work for them.

“So you do have a crush on her?” Damian questions. In response, Janis slowly nods. “Make a move tonight because I am a 100 percent positive that girl isn’t straight. Did you not see her drool over Elsa when we watched Frozen 2? She practically had a heart attack during Show Yourself…” 

Janis faintly smiles at that memory, remembering how her best friend’s eyes widened when Elsa’s hair was let down. She recalls her soft whispering that brought butterflies into Janis’s stomach within seconds; even Cady’s voice could make Janis’s knees wobble. “Kinda. Maybe I would’ve paid more attention had you not been  _ screaming  _ along with the movie.”

“Your fault for choosing a musical movie, you know how I get.” Damian laughs, playfully nudging his friend on the shoulder. “Why did you pick that movie anyway? You  _ hated  _ the first one.” Janis goes silent and reaches for another snickerdoodle, only to cram it in her mouth. “Caddy wanted to watch it didn’t she. God you are so whipped for that girl.” 

“I am and it’s a problem. I don’t even know if she likes me back. With my history of crushes, she probably doesn’t…” Janis grumbles, going through a list of girls she’s liked. Unfortunately, all of them turned out to be straight or simply didn’t see her in a romantic way. Rejection after rejection, the poor girl had lost hope that any crush would like her back. 

Damian swings an arm around Janis, pulling her in closely. “Oh come here hashtag angst, it’s okay.” 

They continue decorating after talking a bit some more, both of them decorating opposite ends of the household. Damian quickly looks around and grabs a small stepping stool from the kitchen. He grabs a little green plant with a red bow tied amongst the vines and places the stool within an open doorway. Stepping onto the stool, he places the green plant securely onto the top of the doorway and smiles to himself. Tonight was  _ definitely  _ going to be enjoyable. 

-

The first to arrive were the ex-Plastics, basically the entire party was present around 8 P.M. Damian happily welcomes his friends into his home and gives each of them a small kiss on the cheek. They stand in the doorway, carefully hanging their coats onto the rack and removing their snow boots in Damian’s foyer; tonight was the first night of snow. He escorts them into the living room, allowing his guests to warm up by the fireplace. Presented before them were plates of snickerdoodles and different baked goods on the coffee table along with soft Christmas music playing in the background. Gifts were placed underneath the tree to be exchanged later on in the night. Eventually, Janis comes from upstairs and enters the living room, quickly stopping by the tree to place a gift down. 

They seat themselves onto the couch and begin eating the baked goods.

“Where’s Cady?” Regina asks, glancing around the living room to look for the bubbly redhead. After many weeks of excited squealing, she would have assumed that Cady would’ve arrived extremely early out of pure excitement.

Janis throws a piece of brownie into Damian’s mouth. “She should be coming soon, her family just finished decorating a tree.” She explains.

“What did you get her?” Gretchen says suggestively, nudging her head in the direction of the tree. She receives a confused look from Janis who is wondering why Gretchen had said her question in a very indicative tone. “You guys are dating aren’t you?”

Damian chokes on his apple cider, letting out a gigantic laugh afterwards while Janis begins blushing like crazy. Did everyone really believe that the two friends were dating? “We- we aren’t dating…” She notices everyone’s confused expressions. “Oh my god am I that obvious or something?”

“Both of you clearly have feelings for each other.” Regina comments. After seeing the two interlace hands during passing period, giving each other hugs from behind during art class, and many other coupley related actions, Regina held a suspicion about her two friends. 

“You two are like in love basically.” Karen adds while licking off the frosting from a cookie that has been decorated to look like a Christmas tree. 

“Okay fine, I have a crush on her but I’m not sure where she stands about me.” Janis finally admits, not wanting to deal with anymore comments that imply something about her relationship with Cady. 

Regina leans over to grab a frosted cookie and takes a bite from the delicious baked good. “Tell her you like her tonight. Preferably underneath that.” She points her head into the direction of the doorway connecting the living room to the foyer. Janis turns bright red when she notices the familiar green plant hanging there - mistletoe. “We can all hide upstairs for you two to have your little moment.” She says, her sentence behaving more like an order rather than a suggestion.

The rest of the group nods in agreement while Janis fiddles with the hoodie strings of her olive-green jacket, contemplating Regina’s comment. Seeing how the artist probably wanted the topic of her relationship with Cady to be avoided for now, Damian quickly switches subjects to a hilarious event that happened in economics class the day before school closed for winter break.

The candy cane grams were exchanged for something more musical, singing candy cane grams. People from show choir would arrive at their respective classroom and would sing a small verse from a Christmas song and would then proceed to hand over the candy cane gram. Although not officially in the show choir group, Kevin Gnapoor tagged along with the people that delivered the musical candy cane grams to his girlfriend’s class. The moment they arrived, Kevin had completely gone off-script and serenaded his flustered girlfriend with an improvised Christmas rap that resulted with him tearing his shirt off. 

After the quick story, there’s the sound of the doorbell interrupting their little laughter session about the story of Kevin’s story. Janis stands up first, walking over to the door. While getting up, the remainder of the friend group stands up and dashes past Janis, rushing themselves upstairs to allow the two some space. The artist lets out a frustrated grumble and releases a quick breath before opening the door.

“Janis!” Cady greets, throwing her arms around her best friend. The taller of the two blushes and relaxes into the hug, feeling much more relaxed in her crush’s embrace. They reluctantly pull away and Cady shrugs off her puffy coat, placing it onto the coat hanger. She peeks over Janis’s shoulder and notices the lack of people. “Where is everybody?”

She escorts Cady to the living room and hears footsteps rumbling around upstairs, internally groaning at the fact that their friends are definitely listening. While the redhead takes a seat in the living room, Janis remains underneath the doorway, following Regina’s directions. “They, uh, went upstairs to do something real quick.” She utters, unable to come up with a lie.

Cady doesn’t buy one second of Janis’s comment due to her stiff body language, but decides not to push it. She takes a brownie and begins eating the baked goods, gesturing to Janis to come sit next to her. When Janis doesn’t come, Cady raises an eyebrow. “Why are you just standing there?” It occurs to Janis that Cady hasn’t spent a Christmas in America for most of her life. Even last year she didn’t have a chance to do proper Christmas activities. When the redhead walks over to Janis and stands underneath the doorway with her, she notices the plant hanging above them. “What’s that?”

“Er, okay so. It’s called a mistletoe…” Janis explains nervously while Cady wonders why a plant is making her best friend extremely flustered and embarrassed. “When two people stand under this, they typically, uh…” She clenches her hands into a fist, her shoulders slightly raising up a bit. The footsteps from upstairs only raise her nerves. “Kiss. Each other.” Cady finally realized why Janis was nervous.

“Oh.” Cady says, her eyes flickering from the mistletoe to Janis’s eyes and finally to her lips. The redhead tugs at her bottom lip while a large blush begins spreading across her face. “Well, I’d be glad to.”

Janis could feel her head go light when she notices Cady’s face slowly come closer and closer. Their lips brush against one another’s and finally connect, causing Janis’s body to relax. Her hands roam to Cady’s waist, pulling her in closer. The redhead’s arms raise up to wrap themselves around Janis’s neck. Cady’s lips taste of the brownie she had just consumed and Janis couldn’t believe she’s  _ finally _ kissing her crush after months of endless pining. Eventually, the friends pull away and press their foreheads together gently while catching their breath.

Cady’s eyes flicker open and sees the biggest grin forming on her friend’s face. “So…” Janis’s eyes open after and there they were, standing in the doorway with their arms still remaining in place. “That was… wonsome.” Cady finally says. Janis pulls her head away to look at her crush with a confused expression. “I meant to say wonderful, but started saying awesome.”

Janis chuckles and raises one hand to Cady’s neck. “Well, it was wonsome.” She manages to steal another kiss from the redhead which they both desperately desired. After pulling away once again, they walk into the living room holding hands. 

They take a seat on the couch and Cady ends up resting her head against Janis’s shoulder. “I hope you know by now that I have a huge crush on you.” The redhead confesses, focusing her attention onto their hands that were interlaced with one another. “Will you be my girlfriend Janis?” She tilts her head up slightly to make eye contact with her possible partner.

Janis’s heart felt elated to hear that news and pressed a small kiss on Cady’s forehead. “I would love to be your girlfriend.”

They let out a small chuckle before their little private moment is interrupted by what sounds like a horde of gazelle tumbling down the staircase. In reality, it’s just the rest of their friends excitedly cheering and taking many,  _ many  _ pictures of the new couple. Damian cranks up the stereo music and lets out a cheer.

“Let’s get this party started~”


	10. nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cady has been having nightmares and Janis comes over one night to comfort her.
> 
> Inspired by Ellie from The Last of Us 2 playing Take on Me for Dina

“Binti, we won’t be back until Monday, are you sure you’ll be okay?” Cady’s father asks while hauling his suitcases into the car. Her parents were visiting a relative and the redhead convinced them to leave her home, promising that there would be no alcohol or parties involved. 

“I’ll be okay. Now get a move on, you guys got a flight to catch. Still don’t know why you chose a midnight flight...” The redhead answers; her parents roll their eyes at the last comment before entering the car. Cady waves goodbye to her parents while standing on her porch barefoot, taking in the last bit of the night sky to admire the little stars shining in the distance. 

When the car reaches outside of Cady’s line of vision, she walks inside the household and takes a deep breath before going upstairs. It’s around 11 P.M and she feels extremely tired especially after today. The trio - Janis, Damian, and Cady - had volunteered at a nearby daycare to watch over kids for community service hours after school had ended. Cady and the others weren’t expecting a large amount of energy coming from a group of third graders and found themselves running across a playground definitely not meant for 12th graders. At one point, the kids had dog-piled onto Damian while Janis and Cady laughed in the distance. When the parents came by to pick up their little balls of energy, the trio nearly passed out the minute they came home; it was certainly a way to spend a Friday evening.

The redhead collapses onto her bed, scrolling through her phone while smiling at the pictures her girlfriend and Damian took while at the daycare. Cady thumbs through pictures of her pushing a kid on the swing, Janis teaching a little boy how to fingerpaint, and Damian playing in a pretend band with a group of aspiring theater actors. For people who never dealt with young children before, childcare somehow came easy to the trio. The daycare employees were greatly impressed by their work and asked them to drop by one day again - the trio’s group chat was filled with discussions about the next time they should come by to take care of the little gremlins.

Cady slowly feels her eyelids closing while staring at the thread of text messages between Janis and Damian, trying her best to avoid falling asleep. Although the redhead felt exhausted and knew she was capable of sleeping in since it’s the weekend, Cady was partially afraid of going asleep. She’s unsure when her nightmares started to begin; ever since the beginning of senior year, she’s been experiencing horrifyingly vivid nightmares that send chills down her spine. Although the redhead is extremely aware that her nightmares weren’t reality, they leave her with immense paranoia throughout the entire day. She’s been searching all over Google trying to figure out why her dreams haven’t been pleasant at all, desperately wanting to see if she could prevent them from happening. Alas, Cady hasn’t figured out an answer and so far, her only solution is to remain awake throughout the night; she’s not sure if she could handle another nightmare.

She hopes that Damian and Janis would be staying up as they usually do, but her plan fails when her two best friends mention that they’ll be going to sleep. Cady reluctantly wishes them a goodnight and places her phone on the nightstand, contemplating what to do. If her parents were home, the redhead most likely would’ve asked them to watch a movie with her, but they were probably boarding their airplane by now. Cady contemplates texting one of the ex-Plastics, but knows that the three of them enjoy getting their beauty sleep. She continues going down the list of people she could possibly text but eventually ends up scrolling through her laptop watching endless videos of interspecies relationships. 

A couple of hours passed and Cady  _ swears _ that she’s gone through every video of a human-animal friendship. It’s approximately around 2 A.M and her body is yearning for sleep, but being alone in a house would make her nightmares a lot worse. Closing her laptop, Cady sits on her bed once again in silence, staring at the floral patterns of her comforter. She reaches for her phone and decides to scroll through social media apps, wanting to distract her mind from going to sleep. Coincidentally, the minute she reaches for her phone Cady notices that Janis is still awake on Instagram through her active status. Desperately wanting to be awake, Cady texts her girlfriend.

[ cadypi ] i cant sleep.

[ artandspace ] neither can i. whats up tho, you okay? seemed really tired after the daycare thing so i thought youd pass out lol

[ cadypi ] parents are out of town and i kinda just dont wanna sleep bc im scared

[ artandspace ] of what?

[ cadypi ] ive just been having nightmares lately. like really bad ones. 

[ cadypi ] i dont think ive gotten 8 hours of sleep in a while to be honest

[ artandspace ] oh honey.

[ artandspace ] want me to sleepover?

Cady hesitates but then realizes it would just be Janis, her loving girlfriend. It would just be the couple alone in the household and she could already envision the two of them lying in bed together early morning; the image brings a smile onto her face.

[ cadypi ] please?

[ artandspace ] ill be there in a bit

[ artandspace ] and dw about my parents, theyre working a graveyard shift

[ cadypi ] oki, see you here <333

Cady lets out a content sigh, feeling relieved that she wouldn’t have to spend a night alone. Being around Janis makes the redhead feel extremely safe and relaxed, as if nothing could harm her. Whenever the artist would give Cady a hug or would plant a small kiss on her cheek, the latter of the two would feel at bliss; something about Janis made Cady feel a thousand times more comfortable.

Approximately 20 minutes pass before Cady receives a text message from her girlfriend notifying her that she’s arrived. Excitingly, the redhead sprints down the staircase into the foyer and opens the door. As always, Cady throws herself into Janis for a gigantic embrace before entering her household. After they share a kiss - that lingered for a bit since no one would be around to see them - Cady notices Janis pick up a large instrument case from her feet.

“You play guitar?” The redhead asks, tugging Janis’s wrist as the couple walks up the stairs. 

“Yeah. Not a lot of people know that I do, but I decided this might help calm you down a bit or something.” Janis replies, lowering the guitar case down next to Cady’s bed. When she removes her shoes and lies down onto her girlfriend’s bed, Cady doesn’t hesitate to snuggle up against her side; Janis wraps an arm around the redhead and plants a small kiss on the top of her head. “What’s up with the nightmares you’ve been having?”

Cady sighs and fiddles around with one of Janis’s hoodie strings. “I don’t really know… it started beginning of senior year.” She tells her, feeling a bit more relaxed within the hold of her girlfriend. “They’re nothing like violent or anything, they’re just really terrifying. Just last night I had a dream that the three of us went on a cruise and it crashed. We all got separated from each other and I was stuck alone on an island by myself…” 

Noticing Cady’s voice becoming timid, Janis reaches her other arm onto her girlfriend’s waist, gently hauling the redhead on top of her; Cady always felt more at ease when lying down on Janis. “I’m sorry that you have to deal with that Caddy.” She plants one more kiss on the top of her head. “You can call me when you have these nightmares you know? Damian too, the two of us are glad to stay up with you to talk about it.” 

“I know, I just don’t wanna bother you guys at like 4 A.M.” Cady grumbles. She always felt guilty whenever talking with people late at night, feeling as if she’s preventing them from getting any sleep. 

“I promise you Caddy that you aren’t bothering us. You definitely aren’t bothering me, I love talking with you.” Janis reassures her girlfriend, gently squeezing her wrapped arms around Cady. “I literally came over at 2 in the morning, I promise that you aren’t being annoying.” The redhead tilts her head to face Janis. “I love you.”

Cady smiles and sits up, straddling her girlfriend. “I love you too.” She leans back down to catch Janis’s lips in for a kiss and interlaces her fingers with her girlfriend’s. 

There was a definite ache between the two girls’ legs, but Cady wasn’t quite energetic enough to act upon it. Instead, Janis gently leans up herself, eventually taking Cady’s place on top before getting off the bed. She smiles when the redhead pouts at Janis leaving the bed and starts opening her guitar case, retrieving the big instrument.

“I think this will make you sleep a lot easier…” Janis said while sitting herself back onto the bed. She leans against the headboard of her girlfriend’s bed while Cady rests her head on Janis’s shoulder. After tuning her guitar, Janis settles on a song to sing that’ll hopefully prevent her girlfriend from having nightmares. “Talking away, I don’t know what else to say…”

Janis’s alluring voice begins filling the entire volume of the room, her soft singing voice gradually lulling Cady to sleep. The first song that Damian and Janis had introduced to Cady when she moved to Chicago was a mountainload of 80s songs and “Take On Me” was one of her girlfriend’s favorites. Her acoustic rendition of the usually upbeat song was enough for the redhead to peacefully fall asleep; Cady began falling asleep by the time Janis reached the chorus of the song.

Feeling the redhead’s weight become a little heavier and her breathing evened out, Janis slowly stopped singing and placed the guitar down by the side of the bed. She pulls the comforter over the two and she turns onto her side, pulling Cady in closer. She plants a feather-like kiss onto her forehead and drifts off to sleep herself.

“Goodnight Cady.”

Janis was delighted to hear from Cady in the morning that there were no nightmares that occurred. 


End file.
